Riding on two splendid half-centuries by Guptill (57) and Ryder (63), New Zealand thrashed India by 8 wickets in the 5th ODI at Auckland. Ryder performed well in the bolwing department too, fetching three crucial wickets - Yuvraj Singh (11), MS Dhoni (9) and Yusuf Pathan (0) and was named Man of the Match.
Defending a mere total of 149, India managed to clinch just two wickets. Pacer Praveen Kumar struck early to remove Brendon McCullum for just 2 runs while lanky Ishant Sharma removed Jesse Ryder's bails to give his side some relief.
But the efforts weren't enough as Ryder, who did the damage for India with the ball, hit 2nd fifty of his ODI career to add on to visitor's woes. While, Martin Guptill hit 3rd fifty of his ODI career to destroy India's hopes of revival.
Ross Taylor (28 off 33) supported Guptill well till the end to finish off the match with 118 balls remaining.
In the morning, early shower at Auckland delayed the match between India and New Zealand. The play was shortened to 43-over per side. Powerplays situation was turned to 9-4-4 and three bowlers were allowed to bowl 9 overs and two eight.
Electing to bat first, India opener Virender Sehwag looked in his dangerous form to give India a solid start. His shots all over the ground made India cross 50-run mark. But the other India opener - Gautam Gambhir could not support the gutsy right-hander and gifted his wicket early to Mills for just 5 runs.
Suresh Raina came in next to partner confident-looking Sehwag. But was soon removed by Jacob Oram with the help of a brilliant Styris catch, for just 8 runs.
Sehwag continued his aggressive batting, smashed a confident set of 40 runs off 57 balls and as he looked to get settled, Oram struck for the second time to send him back to pavilion.
Yuvraj Singh stepped in to revive Indian innings but was in vain. Ryder took the charge and caught him in slips by McGlashan when he was on 11. India then struggled at 84/3.
Skipper Dhoni was expected of a captain's innings but failed to deliver. He misread a Ryder delivery to get clean bowled on 9 runs. This was Jesse Ryder's second wicket for the day.
Ryder also removed the new man Pathan for a duck to leave India depleted. Rohit Sharma, at the other end on 21, felt the heat when the batting line-up was exhausted after Pathan's departure.
The bottom four Indian wickets tumbled one after the other in regular intervals to wipe off hopes of a fighting total. Harbhajan Singh (1) and Zaheer Khan (5) threw away their wickets when they fell short of crease.
O'Brien swept the last two wickets in the form of Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar, who didn't come handy and fell cheaply for 3 and 6 runs respectively. Rohit Sharma (43) held the fort till the end, adding some crucial runs, but they weren't enough to put a big score. Indian innings were wrapped up for 149 all out in 36.3 overs.
With the series already in their pocket, India was expected to rest some of their key players but they decided to retain the same winning bunch of players that conquered the ODI series in the 4th ODI.
For the hosts, Scott Styris replaced Ewen Thompson with the reduction in the game.
New Zealand team: JD Ryder, BB McCullum, MJ Guptill, LRPL Taylor, GD Elliott, JDP Oram, PD McGlashan, DL Vettori, KD Mills, SB Styris, IE O'Brien
India team: V Sehwag, G Gambhir, SK Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, RG Sharma, YK Pathan, P Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, I Sharma
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