Vadodara, Dec 4: India registered an emphatic nine wicket victory against New Zealand in the third ODI played at the Reliance Stadium here today. The win gives India an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five match series.

Chasing a target of 225, the Indian innings resembled their chase from the game at Jaipur a few days ago. Captain Gautam Gambhir helped himself to yet another century, while Virat Kohli hit his fourth consecutive half-century. Murali Vijay, the only batsman to be dismissed in the Indian innings, scored 30 runs and like in the game at Jaipur put on another big partnership (115) with Gambhir for the first wicket.

Gambhir, who scored his 10th ODI century (126*), brought out the full range of his shots in the course of his innings. The left-handed opener cut, pulled, flicked and drove the Kiwi bowlers to all parts of the ground, thereby setting up the Indian victory in just 39.3 overs. Kohli too remained unbeaten on 63.

Earlier, Gambhir won the toss for the second time in a row and decided to field first. India made two changes to their squad – with Zaheer Khan and Ravindra Jadeja coming in for S Sreesanth and Suresh Raina. For the Kiwis, Brendon McCullum returned to their squad, while James Franklin replaced Tim Southee in the playing eleven.

The Kiwis were in trouble early in their innings. Zaheer Khan won the battle of the men returning from injury, when he had Brendon McCullum (0) caught behind at second slip off just the second ball of the day. Gambhir then effected a run-out that had Martin Guptill (12), the other Kiwi opener, finding his way back to the pavilion with the score at 19/2.

Kane Williamson (21), Ross Taylor (4) and Scott Styris (22) too struggled to find any kind of form and at 77/5 in 23 overs, there was a sense of disappointment about the Kiwi batting lineup that had otherwise shown tremendous fight in the Test series. Yusuf Pathan, bowling his innocuous off-breaks, added to the Kiwis’ batting woes by taking the wickets of Daniel Vettori (3) and Gareth Hopkins (6) in successive overs. New Zealand were 106/7 at this stage.

A 94-run partnership then ensued between James Franklin and Nate MCullum for the eighth wicket that gave the Kiwi total some respectability. Franklin posted his first ODI half-century in the bargain, while McCullum’s 52-ball 43 helped lift the Kiwi total to 224/9 at the end. The hosts were once again guilty of leaking too many runs at the death with the last five overs yielding as many as 47 runs to the Kiwi total.

For India, Zaheer, R Ashwin and Pathan all took two wickets each.

Brief Scores: India 229/1 in 39.3 overs (Gautam Gambhir 126*, Virat Kohli 63*) beat New Zealand 224/9 (James Franklin 72*, Nathan McCullum 43, Zaheer Khan 2-31) by nine wickets.

Man-of-the-Match: Gautam Gambhir for his swashbuckling knock of 126*, that gave India an emphatic series win.