India bowlers held their nerves in the death overs to help the Men In Blue beat New Zealand by six runs in a thrilling third and final One-Day International at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur on Sunday.

India, thus, clinched the three-match ODI series 2-1. Chasing a mammoth 338-run target, New Zealand fell agonisingly short after managing 331 for seven in their allotted 50 overs, reports NDTV.

Colin Munro (75), skipper Kane Williamson (64) and Tom Latham (65) were the major contributors for New Zealand.

For India, pacer Jasprit Bumrah scalped three wickets and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets.

New Zealand needed 15 runs off the last over. Kohli’s decision of giving the ball to the death-over specialist Bumrah worked perfectly for India as the right-arm pacer hardly gave anything away.

Bumrah conceded just eight runs in the final over to deny Kiwis a series win.

Put in to bat, India rode on centuries from Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli. A brilliant performance from Rohit and skipper Virat helped India post a daunting 337/6.

Rohit was the top scorer for India with 147 runs while Kohli slammed 113 to cross the milestone of 9,000 ODI runs.

Rohit struck his 15th century in ODIs, the fifth of this year and the first against New Zealand. Kohli slammed his 32nd ton and the fifth against the visitors to help India score the highest total in 15 ODIs here.

The previous best was 303 by South Africa against India in 2015.

It was also Kohli’s sixth century in 2017, the most by a captain in a year. Previously, Sourav Ganguly (2000), Australia’s Ricky Ponting (2003, 2007), South Africa’s Graeme Smith (2005) and AB de Villiers (2015) struck five.