India - New Zealand 3rd ODI: India win by 58 runs

Sachin Tendulkar scored his first century in New Zealand and helped India take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series with two matches left to play. Sachin was the real star on the day which nearly saw over 700 runs being scored. India lost Sehwag and Gambhir early but Yuvraj took control of the game with some hard hitting. He set the tone for Indian innings. India took the batting powerplay in 23rd over, a move that really paid off with India scoring 69 runs in those 5 overs. After Yuvi got out, Sachin took complete control and hit his 43rd ODI hundred. He and Dhoni pulverised the Kiwi attack. Sachin retired hurt on 163* and Raina took off as soon as he came and India ended with a massive 392 in 50 overs. Tim Southee had a terrible day as he conceeded 105 runs in his 10 overs. When New Zealand batted, Ryder and McCullum put on 166 for the first wicket before a flurry of wickets shifted the balance towards India. Ryder hit his maiden ODI century. Just when it seemed India would close the match, Mills and Southee took the Kiwis within striking distance. When Munaf Patel was removed from bowling by umpire Rudi Koertzen for bowling 2 waist high full tosses, the Kiwis would have been very upset as Munaf had totally lost the plot and was leaking runs. Yusuf Pathan, who came to finish that over picked up Mills' s wicket. And in the very next over Southee was picked up by Praveen to bring and end to the match. The small ground(combined with pitch) in Christchurch provided us the match which saw the maximum number of sixes hit. Next match is at Hamilton on Wednesday.

Brief Scores:
India 392 for 4 (Tendulkar 163*, Yuvraj 87, Dhoni 67) beat New Zealand 334 (Ryder 101, McCullum 71, Mills 54, Harbhajan 2-56) by 58 runs