Jaipur, Dec 1: Gautam Gambhir posted his eighth century to help India take a 2-0 lead in the five match ODI series against New Zealand. The match played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur was a day/night affair.

Chasing a target of 259, India got off to a solid start with Gambhir playing the aggressor right from the beginning. There were some lovely drives played on the off side by the India captain, with a neat clip past square leg bringing up the 50-run mark for India in just the tenth over. Murali Vijay, opening the innings with Gambhir, was happy to play anchor at the other end.

India reached the 100-run mark for the loss of Vijay’s wicket, the Chennai batsmen falling to a Daniel Vettori delivery that crashed into his stumps. But Gambhir, now playing in the company of the in-form Virat Kohli, kept milking the New Zealand bowling attack. He brought up his century off just 89 deliveries, with a hit to the mid-wicket boundary, in the 37th over. And even though India lost Virat Kohli (64 off 73) with the score at 203, Gambhir (138 off 116) and Yuvraj Singh (16 off 11) ensured there were no last minute hiccups and team India reached home with eight wickets to spare.

Earlier, Daniel Vettori returned to captain the New Zealand side and Gambhir opted to bowl first after winning the toss. Although, the pitch looked a good wicket to bat on, New Zealand were kept in check for the first 34 overs of their innings. The Indian bowlers didn’t bowl too many lose deliveries, with both the seamers and the spinners keeping things simple and bowling wicket to wicket.

For New Zealand, barring Martin Guptill - Jamie How (5), Kane Williamson (29) and Ross Taylor (15) - all failed to produce a substantial contribution at the top of the order. But with Guptill and Scott Styris involved in a 65-run partnership for the fourth wicket, and Styris-Vettori then adding 58 runs for the fifth wicket New Zealand were able to pull up their run-rate towards the end of their innings.

Where the first 34 overs produced only 137 runs (RR 4.02), the last 16 overs saw New Zealand add another 121 runs (RR 7.56) to their total. Both Guptill (70 off 102 balls) and Styris (59 off 56 balls) reached their respective half-centuries. For India, Sreesanth took four wickets and was the pick of the bowlers.

Brief Scores: India 259/2 in 43 overs (Gautam Gambhir 138*, Virat Kohli 64, Daniel Vettori 1-32) beat New Zealand258/8 (Martin Guptill 70, Scott Styris 59, S Sreesanth 4-47) by 8 wickets.

Man-of-the-Match – Gautam Gambhir for his unbeaten knock of 138 that gave India a handsome 8-wicket win.