Hamilton: An unbeaten century from Ross Taylor helped New Zealand beat India by seven wickets in the fourth ODI and take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series here on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 279, the Kiwis reached 280 for three in 48.1 overs with Taylor scoring a match-winning 127-ball 112 not out to take the hosts home with 11 balls to spare.
New Zealand got off to a good start with Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill treating the Indian bowling attack with disdain. The two scored boundaries at will and together hit 10 fours and a six in their opening stand of 54 runs. However Varun Aaron gave India the breakthrough as he got the wicket of Ryder who scored 19 off 18 balls with four boundaries. Guptill too left four runs later in the never next over, as Shami trapped him on 35.
But Taylor starred in New Zealand's innings as he went on to share two important partnerships, including a 130-run stand with Kane Williamson (60)and then an unbroken 92-run fourth wicket partnership with skipper Brendon McCullum (49 not out).
For India, Mohammed Shami (1/61) and Varun Aaron (1/51) were the only wicket-takers. Ravindra Jadeja (0/33) and R Ashwin (0-41) bowled economically, but couldn't claim a wicket. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0/62) too proved to be ineffective.
Earlier batting first, India rode on some sensible batting from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to score 278 for five in their allotted 50 overs.
India made two changes, dropping both Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina, and bringing in Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny, who was handed his first ODI cap. India lost their top order quickly, but Rohit rebuilt the innings with a 94-ball 79, before Dhoni (79 not out) and Jadeja (62 not out) put on a fighting 127-run stand for the unbroken sixth wicket.
