Virender Sehwag blasted a 60-ball hundred to become the fastest Indian centurion in ODIs while Gautam Gambhir hit a solid fifty for India to clinch the rain-hit 4th ODI by 84 runs by Duckworth Lewis method and win series against New Zealand at Hamilton. This is flamboyant opener's 11th ODI hundred of his career.
Another pause due to rain led to the reduction in the overs to 36 and India had to achieve 220-run target. Sehwag and Gambhir remained unbeaten on 125 and 63 respectively and shared a 201-run partnership to power India to series win.
Earlier, chasing the revised target of 281, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir gave the desired start to the Indian innings. India smoothly crossed initial overs without any loss of wickets.
Gambhir was on 28 while Sehwag was batting confidently on 51 to give nightmares to the Kiwis before rain halted the match for the third time in the day.
With two swift half-centuries by McCullum (77) and McGlashan (56), New Zealand managed to score 270/5. But the target for India was revised to 281 by the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Electing to bat first, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder looked careful when they initiated their innings while India pacers struggled to get the breakthrough, early in the morning.
Both the openers managed to hit well and save their wickets till the time Ryder became part-timer Yuvraj Singh's victim when he was on 46 runs.
Ross Taylor joined Brendon McCullum, who smashed 15th ODI half-century of his career to take Kiwis past 100-run mark. Another India part-timer Yusuf Pathan came handy when he was quick enough to send back the new batsman - Taylor for just 5 runs.
Martin Guptill came in next and got an early scare of a run-out when he was on 12 runs. Just when the hosts looked a bit stronger, McCullum (77) was caught plumb by pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and he missed another well-deserving century.
Jacob Oram joined Martin Guptill at the crease but his arrival was of no benefit to the batting side as he gave away his wicket to lanky pacer Ishant Sharma off Dhoni. He added just one run to the board.
Ishant Sharma took another wicket in the form of Guptill (25) whose catch was closely taken by the third man and substitute Karthik. Grant Eliott entered next.
When Eliott (12) and McGlashan (28) were at the crease, play was stopped due to rain. New Zealand's score was 209 at the loss of 5 wickets then.
Play resumed but was again halted after two overs as rain played spoilsport for the second time. The game was reduced to 47-over per side.
Play began and McGlashan hit a quick fifty. He remained unbeated on 56. While, Eliott (35*) added some crucial runs in the end to raise the score to 270/5.
Earlier, Ian O'Brien and Ewen Thompson joined New Zealand's playing XI. Vettori, who missed the third ODI, came back to lead the side.
For India, Rohit Sharma replaced injured Sachin Tendulkar and Ishant Sharma made an entry. Munaf Patel warmed the bench.
New Zealand: JD Ryder, BB McCullum, MJ Guptill, LRPL Taylor, GD Elliott, JDP Oram, PD McGlashan, DL Vettori, KD Mills, EP Thompson, IE O'Brien
India: V Sehwag, G Gambhir, SK Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, RG Sharma, YK Pathan, P Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, I Sharma
