Kohli, Rohit help India set 338-run target for Kiwis

Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], October 29 (ANI): Brilliant centuries from opener Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli helped India set a huge target of 338 for New Zealand in the third and final One-Day International (ODI) between the two sides here at the Green Park stadium on Sunday.

Put into bat, India did not started well as left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan (14) was sent back to pavilion in the seventh over.

However, Rohit and Kohli put on a mammoth 230-run stand for the second wicket, to put India in a commanding position.

Rohit (147) scored his 15th ODI hundred on the occasion with where as Kohli (113) notched up his 32nd ton.

Captain Kohli also became the fastest to reach 9000 ODI runs, taking just 194 innings to achieve the feat.

He also became the first batsman to amass 2000 runs in international cricket in 2017.

MS Dhoni's 25 from 17 balls and Kedar Jadhav's 18 from 10 deliveries gave India the extra momentum in the death overs to pose a record for the highest team score in Kanpur.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya was not able to add much to India's score as he went down cheaply by scoring just 8 runs where as Dinesh Karthik remained not out on 4.

Tim Southee, Adam Milne and Mitchell Santner took 2 wickets each to restrict India for 337 at the end of 50 overs.

Earlier, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bowl first.

"We are going to have a bowl. I don't think it will seam as much but still there should be some help and then dew later on in the game. Whatever we do here, the wickets tend to be generally good surfaces and the team that plays the better cricket wins. It is a great opportunity for us and we want to enjoy it out there," Williamson said.

Kohli said, "It looks a good wicket. We would have been okay with batting or bowling first but keeping the dew in mind, maybe batting second was better. Irrespective of what we do first, we need to do it well."

The hosts equalled the series with a six-wicket win at Pune, with the help of half-centuries coming from Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik.

Earlier, the Black Caps defeated India in the first ODI match at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. (ANI)