India hang tight to pull off thrilling one-wicket win Sourav Ganguly.s men almost contrived to lose the sixth ODI before eking out a nail-biting one-wicket win with one ball to spare. Chasing 200 to win in 49 overs, the visitors seemed home and dry at 182/3 in the 42nd over. But the loss of Virender Sehwag, who made a chancy 112 off 139 balls, at that stage precipitated a collapse that saw them go into the final over needing four runs with three wickets in hand. In the event, the first two balls yielded one run before further drama unfolded. Kaif (7) fell to the third while Zaheer Khan (0) was run out off the next, a wide. Fortunately for the Indians, the last wicket pair of Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra managed to hold their nerves and steer their side home. Earlier, Srinath (10-2-13-3) had bowled outstandingly as India reduced New Zealand to 147/9. But a hard-hitting Shane Bond (31* off 15 balls) in the company of Lou Vincent (53* off 107 balls) helped the hosts recover to 199/9 in their 50 overs. Despite being docked an over for slow over-rate, it was though to prove a total that was within India.s reach on the day.

We should have won the game easily - Ganguly Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was happy to see his side notch up another win but felt that they injected some unnecessary excitement into a match, which they should have secured easily. .We just left it too late. It is not that we have not been in this situation before - we have experienced a few close games - but we should have won this game easily,. he observed. Talking about the bowlers, Ganguly said they did a good job for the best part of the New Zealand innings but almost undid it all by conceding 52 runs off 23 balls to the last-wicket pair of Lou Vincent and Shane Bond. "I thought we bowled very well until the last three overs, that doesn't usually happen because Zaheer [Khan] is fantastic at the death," the Indian skipper said. It was an indirect indictment of his own poor bowling that saw him concede 18 runs in his last over, the 49th of the New Zealand innings. Ganguly also took the opportunity to express his surprise at his side being docked an over for slow over-rate. "We were surprised today to be penalised our overs. We were working through the overs very well because we knew we had to with five seamers. We had to do that and did it right from the start," he said, adding that he thought various stoppages had not been worth the docking penalty. But that said, the skipper was happy that his side had won two matches in a row at the end of the day. "It was good to get back to the winning streak, but as I said before I kept on losing important tosses (earlier)," he observed.

Hamilton pitch expected to produce high-scoring game More than three weeks ago, Hamilton's Westpac Park pitch was the source of much criticism after the groundstaff suffered bad weather on the two days before the second Test. But in spite of 163 millilitres of rain falling on the ground last week, the groundstaff are certain they have it right for the final match in the one-day series between New Zealand and India on Tuesday. The pitch will be harder and faster after two days of solid baking in hot sun and with more rolling to be done. Assistant groundsman Daniel Wilson said today the pitch for the game would be more of a batting track and the groundstaff were picking scores of 270-280 for the sides. He confirmed that there would be nothing like the sideways movement there had been in the Test and that it would be the best pitch of the one-day series.

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