NEW DELHI, NOV 17: From the Indian point of view, it was a good toss to lose. The early morning moisture on the relaid track helped seamers and the Kiwi batsmen struggled throughout their innings (barring when Chris Cairns was at the centre). A target of 180 proved too meagre for the strong Indian batting. A sound 117-run opening stand between the new right-left combination of Devang Gandhi and Saurav Ganguly ensured that the Indians had a smooth passage.Ganguly, who won the `Man of the Match' as well as the `Man of the Series' (that eraned him a Fiat Siena) was unlucky to miss his 10th one-day hundred by 14 runs. The late dismissals of Ganguly and Tendulkar at the same score of 156, in the 34th over, however, made no difference to the result. The Karnataka pair of Rahul Dravid and Vijay Bhardwaj gave the finishing touches.With the series poised at 2-2, much was expected from the decider. But it turned out to be a dampener as the Kiwis failed to put up a decent total. The Indians bowled and fielded well to keep them in check.Experienced Srinath made his presence felt by having Nathan Astle leg before in his third over. Kumaran troubled the other opener Spearman, beating him off his first five deliveries. The Tamil Nadu bowler had Spearman caught at second slip by Dravid. Skipper Fleming tried to retrieve the situation with a 35-run stand but Ganguly trapped the Kiwi skipper in front as the left-hander shaped to push him to the legside.With wickets falling at regular intervals and the run-rate not touching even three per over, it was left to the tall Chris Cairns to give the innings some impetus. The Kiwi all-rounder first singled out Ganguly for punishment, taking a six (over square-leg) and two boundaries off three successive balls in the 24th over. He later turned his attention on Sunil Joshi, cracking two fours and a six over long-off to accelerate the scoring.Cairns and left-handed Twose put on 66 in 14 overs when Cairns departed, Robin Singh getting an lbw decision in his favour. Cairns tried to hit across on the legside and found umpire Vinit Gupte raising the dreaded finger.Twose's uppish sweep off Joshi was taken at backward short-leg by Bhardwaj and Parore played an atrocious shot to be bowled middle stump by Kumaran in his second spell. The Indian fielding gave full support to the bowling and a couple of run outs put the Kiwis in total disarray. Kumaran, improving with each game, finished with three for 24.Ganguly was the dominant partner in the opening stand, striking Drum for 17 runs (including four successive fours) in the bowler's second over to set the tone for the home team's path to victory. A coverdrive, a flick to fineleg, on the rise through point and through squareleg off a fuller-length delivery from Drum had the maddening Kotla crowd go crazy.Gandhi, on the other hand, was sedate although he blossomed later and struck five boundaries, four of them coming between the 15th and 17th over of the innings before falling leg before to Drum in the 27th over.Ganguly, who struck an unbeaten 150 in Gwalior, was looking set for his 10th one-day hundred when Dravd joined him in the middle. But it was Dravid who seemed in a hurry to finish off the game, with a flurry of fours and two sixes off Vettori. Realising that the Bengal left-hander was close to the century-mark, Dravid slowed down. But it did not help as Ganguly himself departed, stumped off Vettori as he jumped out to lift the left-arm spinner.The failure to get early wickets had frustrated the Kiwis. But they were rewarded twice in quick succession. Tendulkar lasted just three deliveres before his uppish drive was taken well by Vettori on his own bowling. But Dravid and Bhardwaj stayed together to see the team through without further damage.ScoreboardNEW ZEALAND:Fleming lbw Ganguly 22 (81m, 60b, 1x4)Twose c Bhardwaj b Joshi 47 (142m, 94b, 2x4)Cairns lbw Robin Singh (41 (56m, 57b, 4x4, 2x6)Parore b Kumaran 13 (40m, 32b)Harris not out (12 (28m, 14b, 1x4)Styris run out 2 (5m, 6b)Tait c Robin Singh b Kumaran 4 (3m, 4b, 1x4)Vettori run out 2 (2m, 1b)Extras (lb 13, w 9, nb 4): 26Total (for 9 wkts in 50 overs): 179.Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Astle), 2-23 (Spearman), 3-58 (Fleming), 4-124 (Cairns), 5-152 (Twose), 6-161 (Parore), 7-165 (Styris), 8-172 (Tait), 9-179 (Vettori)Bowling: Srinath 10-1-31-1 (2 w), Kumaran 9-3-24-3 (1 w), Nikhil Chopra 5-1-16-0 (6 w), S Ganguly 6-1-29-1 (4 nb), Robin Singh 10-0-28-1, S Joshi 10-0-38-1.INDIA: D Gandhi lbw Drum 30 (116m, 67b, 5x4)S Ganguly st Parore b Vettori 86 (146m, 110b, 12x4, 1x6)R Dravid not out 29 (57m, 53b, 3x4, 2x6)S Tendulkar c and b Vettori 0 (2m, 3 b)V Bharadwaj not out 17 (33m, 35b, 3x4)Extras (lb 2, nb 5, w 12): 19Total (for 3 wkts in 44 overs): 181.Fall of wickets: 1-117 (Gandhi), 2-156 (Ganguly (Ganguly), 3-156 (Tendulkar).Bowling: Cairns 7-4-10-0 (nb 1, w 1), Drum 5-0-41-1 (w 5), Styris 10-2-23-0 (w 4), Astle 4-0-19-0, Harris 6-0-30-0 (nb 3), Vettori 10-2-46-2, Tait 2-0-10-0.Result: India won by seven wickets with six overs to spare.Series result: India won 3-2.Man of the match: Saurav GangulyMan of the series: Saurav Ganguly.
