Mount Maunganui, Feb 11 (UNI) A brilliant century by K L Rahul guided India to a total of 296-7 against New Zealand in the third and final ODI of the three match series at the Bay Oval, here on Tuesday.
Lokesh Rahul scored 112 off 113, while Shreyas Iyer (62 off 63) and Manish Pandey (42 off 48) also contributed well with the bat and helped India post a challenging total at Mount Maunganui.
Hamish Bennett was the most successful bowler with 6/44 for Kiwis while Kyle Jamieson 1/53 and James Neesham 1/50 were the other wicket takers.
Earlier, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and invited India to bat. India were off to a horrible start losing opener Mayank Agarwal (1) and skipper Virat Kohli (9) for single-digit scores.
Young opener Prithvi Shaw got off to a good start but got run out. Shaw scored 40 runs from 41 deliveries.
At one point of time, India were struggling at 62-3 but the fourth-wicket 100-run partnership between Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul helped India recover.
Iyer registered his third fifty-plus score in a row before getting out to James Neesham. Rahul got to his half-century later in the innings.
After James Neesham broke the century stand between Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul with the former's dismissal, India looked in a spot of bother but Manish Pandey came in and steadied India with a strong fifth wicket stand with Rahul.
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