Gambhir’s century in Vadodara gives India series win over New Zealand

VADODARA - Skipper Gautam Gambhir hit his ninth one-day international century, helping India to a nine-wicket win in the third ODI played here on Saturday.

Gambhir hit 16 boundaries in his unbeaten 126 off 117 balls. One drop batsman Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 63 of 70 balls with six fours and two sixes. He also hit the winning runs.

Gambhir and Kohli put on 114 runs of 125 balls, helping the hosts to score a comprehensive victory over the touring team.

The hosts won the opening match at Guwahati by 40 runs and then took a 2-0 lead with a thumping eight-wicket victory in the second ODI in Jaipur. Saturday’s win helped them to seal the series.

Earlier, New Zealand scored 224/9 with James Franklin top scoring with 72.

Today’s defeat was the ninth successive for New Zealand.

India still have two matches to play in Bangalore on December 7 and in Chennai on December 10.

Scorecard:

India 229 for 1 (Gambhir 126*, Kohli 63*)

New Zealand 224 for 9 (Franklin 72*, Yusuf 2-27, Zaheer 2-31) (ANI)