Chennai, Dec 10:India registered a clean sweep in the five-match One Day International series after they beat New Zealand by eight wickets here in Chennai. India, led by Parthiv Patel and Yuvraj Singh, chased down the New Zealand score of 103 in just 21.1 overs.

India’s chase suffered a shaky start when both Gautam Gambhir (0) and Virat Kohli (2), found their way back into the pavilion with the score reading 10/2. But Yuvraj Singh, who hadn’t had much of an impact in this series, along with Parthiv Patel ensured there were no hiccups subsequently and took India home with over 28 overs to spare. Patel cracked his second consecutive half-century (56*) of the series, while Yuvraj Singh remained not out on 42.

Earlier, R Ashwin took three wickets while Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan claimed two wickets each as the Kiwis were bowled out for a mere 103 runs after winning the toss and electing to bat first.

New Zealand’s problems began in the very first over as Indian medium pacer Praveen Kumar dismissed Martin Guptill for a duck to push the visitors on to the backfoot. Brendon McCullum was the next to fall, when Ashish Nehra had him trapped lbw for 14 runs. Nehra then provided the third blow to visitors when he scalped Ross Taylor for nine runs.

New Zealand never recovered from that early stutter and collapsed soon after with wicket numbers four to ten going for the addition of just 32 runs from a score of 71. Scott Styris (24) and Jamie How (23) were the only two Kiwi batsmen to post scores of 20 plus for New Zealand.

Brief Scores: India 107/2 in 21.1 overs (Parthiv Patel 56*, Yuvraj Singh 42*, Nate McCullum 1-26)beatNew Zealand 103 all out in 27 overs (Scott Styris 24, R Ashwin 3-24, Yusuf Pathan 2-11) by 8 wickets

Man-of-the-Match: Yuvraj Singh for his unbeaten knock of 42 and bowling figures of 2-0-5-2

Man-of-the-Series: Gautam Gambhir for his captaincy that led India to a 5-0 series win and his 329 runs scored at an average of 109.66, which included two centuries.