8.00 pm Early finish from Vizag as India's players line up behind a sign that says "Champions." Thank you for joining us. If you haven't had enough of this game, Karthik Krishnaswamy has a treat for you in this report. Arun Venugopal, who was at the ground, will be scrambling to pen his own thoughts. So look out for them later. This blabbermouth though is outta here.
"One of the best performances by the bowlers. This was one game where the spinners bowled with a lot of assistance. Before this when we bowled firs,t the wicket was always better to bat in the first half. Exceptional performance in this game, there was a bit of dew. But the pace the spinners bowled was perfect," MS Dhoni says, "Mishra's beauty is he bowls slow, so as a keeper you have time to recover the ball to stump batsmen. And in tandem with Axar, who bowls flat and quick, it was very good. I think Virat was superb with the bat, we got off to a decent start. When Rohit got injured, the message was if you think you can't carry on, just play your shots. Once he got out, he gave us some momentum. We felt it was a difficult wicket to freely rotate. That's when we decided to play the big shots. We felt 270 was par-plus but considering the dew factor that was necessary. Glad we could rest some key players, with some big Test series coming up. Happy with our performance. I feel the batsmen down the order, like Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel and Manish Pandey gained a lot of experience. It is difficult to get the complete product in international cricket so the new players should be given time to develop. There are few ways to approach the game. The IPL way, you keep hitting and chase down but in international arena, you fail and that's when you become more calculative. It's not necessary to win in 40 overs. You can do so in 50 as well"
"Without a doubt the total was a lot above par. India have played really well throughout the series. It's very hard to look past today's performance for us, you expect to put up a good performance whether we win or lose and today we were terrible," Williamson says. "We expect a lot more of our batting, and losing 8 for 20 or whatever it is is unacceptable. Playing against one of the best sides in the world, there is room to learn. A lot of comes on the back of losses, so tough lessons. But it's important we take them in. The disappointment is very fresh after a performance like this though. Positives - Test series was extremely tough, coming into this one-day series, after heavy defeats, we fought hard in some tricky surfaces. That was a good effort. We pride ourselves on learning game to game, and today we didn't show that. There was number of individuals who did their reputations good. Someone like Tom Latham with the bat and Mitchell Santner's all round work"
7.50 pm Amit Mishra is the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series as well. He has taken 15 wickets at an average of 14.33, by far the most successful bowler among either side. "It's great for the team if I perform like this, they've supported me during tough phases. At the start, I was a little tense, but Dhoni told me to calm down, bowl at the wickets, and thanks to that, all went well. There was bounce and spin in the pitch, so bowling slowly, bowling normally worked for me. Anil Kumble also talked to me about it before the match, to trust my strength, to trust the flighted balls. Axar Patel has also been doing well, and if newcomers keep doing well like this, it will be good for India. Very happy with the way I am bowling, hopefully I can continue. All credit to my coaches, MS, Kohli, Ajinkya, everyone."
7.30 pm A veritable demolition job, led by Amit Mishra's 6-2-18-5. His efforts have forced New Zealand to be all out for 79, their lowest total against India and having lasted only 23.2 overs, it is also their shortest completed innings in ODIs.
The series was 2-2 coming into Visakhapatnam. Both teams have had issues with their middle-order batting. In this game, India's showed some improvement, scoring 70 runs in the last 10 overs, most of which was played without either Kohli or Dhoni at the crease. In contrast, New Zealand, the moment Williamson fell, lost seven wickets for 16 runs to lose this match by 190 runs and the series 2-3.
It is India's first bilateral ODI series win in India since 2014 (although in between that win over SL and this one over NZ, there has only been one series that they lost - SA). Their success was set up by a 65-ball 70 from Rohit Sharma: "Good to get some runs. It was important for one of the top batters to bat as long as possible because the wicket was not as good as we thought. Unfortunately, I pulled my quad a little bit and I had to play the big shots after that. We played some IPL here as well and I spoke myself about how to bat here, it's not a typical wicket as we've seen over the years. Had to play myself in, get through the initial phases and then click on from there. My and Virat's partnereship was crucial then Jadhav and Axar did well in the end. Disappointed with my series returns, I didn't play more than 20 balls in the first four games, but here that's exactly what I did and I got a better idea of the wicket and played my shots accordingly. Winning the series was very important, and hats off to Mishra as well, he's been bowling brilliantly throughout the series"
"Very proud to represent the country, and with my mother's name on the back, very special," says Jayant Yadav, the debutant. "My Mom Lakshmi is no more. I want to give a special mention to my adopted mother Jyoti, there was a mix-up with the names, you are always here [points to his heart]. Initially was nervous, but I knew it was gripping a bit and I got better as I bowled more"
Anchal Badariya: "My mom forced me to bring bread and veggies so I went at 60 for 2, I just came to know its all over. Surprising!! "
Neel: "With the likes of Ashwin, Mishra, Jadeja, Shami, Bumrah, Umesh and Bhubhneshwar the bowling arsenal is looking more dangerous than our batting strength"
Supradeep: "Somebody during the Indian innings spoke about due setting in after 8 pm. This match has been wrapped up by the Indian spinners even 7.30 pm local time."
MJ Santner b Patel 4 (18m 10b 0x4 0x6) SR: 40.00
Vijay: "NZ just made my daughter's day -- she loves the song about the 5 little ducks!"
END OF OVER:23 | 3 Runs | NZ: 79/9 (191 runs required from 27 overs, RR: 3.43, RRR: 7.07)
- Trent Boult1 (5b)
- Mitchell Santner4 (9b)
- Jayant Yadav4-0-8-1
- Amit Mishra6-2-18-5
Abhas Mukherjee: "I hope Kohli plays Ashwin, Jadeja, and Mishra together against the Englishmen. I do not see England having any chance against these men. England beware!!!!!!"
Slip, short leg and leg slip surround Trent Boult
END OF OVER:22 | (wicket maiden) | NZ: 76/9 (194 runs required from 28 overs, RR: 3.45, RRR: 6.92)
- Trent Boult0 (2b)
- Mitchell Santner2 (6b)
- Amit Mishra6-2-18-5
- Jayant Yadav3-0-5-1
Jack Ward: "Bring back Baz!!!" he'd be pleased with this field Dhoni has. Three slips and a short leg. To a legspinner!
IS Sodhi c Rahane b Mishra 0 (5m 5b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
There were two slips and a silly point before this ball. Now it is two slips and a short leg
Shanker: "Mishra improves fitness and fielding = impossible to leave off team" I'd be tempted to include him despite that. A legspinner as skillful as him is an asset more often than not. His efforts here could mean New Zealand's lowest allout score against India in ODIs - the previous was 103
END OF OVER:21 | 2 Runs | NZ: 76/8 (194 runs required from 29 overs, RR: 3.61, RRR: 6.68)
- Mitchell Santner2 (6b)
- Ish Sodhi0 (1b)
- Jayant Yadav3-0-5-1
- Amit Mishra5-1-18-4