Mount Maunganui, Jan 28: India beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the third one-day international in Mount Maunganui on Monday to take the series with two games to spare.
Rohit Sharma (62) and Virat Kohli (60) put on 113 for the second wicket as India reached their 244-run target with 42 balls left.
New Zealand were all out for 243 in the 49th over with Ross Taylor making 93 and Tom Latham 51.
India won the first two games by eight wickets and 90 runs respectively.
New Delhi, Jan 2: Thrilled after getting to know about Hardik Pandya and Natasa Stankovic's engagement, skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday called it a "pleasant surprise".
Extending his best wishes to the newly-engaged couple, Kohli posted a comment on Pandya's Instagram post which read, "Congratulations H. What a pleasant surprise. Wish you guys great times ahead. God bless".
On the first day of the New Year 2020, Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.
The cricketer took to Instagram to share the photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".
The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.
On the work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from the Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.
Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show Bigg Boss 8.
In 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed that Pandya had had lower-back surgery in London.
Mumbai, May 26: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar said that if he was playing currently he and Virat Kohli would have been the best of friends off the field, but real enemies whenever they stepped on the field.
Akhtar also said that he would have liked to challenge Kohli to drive the ball.
"Virat Kohli and I would have been the best of friends as both of us are Punjabi, but on the field, we would have been the best of the enemies. I would have loved to get inside the head of Kohli. I would have told him that you cannot play a cut or pull shot against me," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.
"I would have gone wide of the crease and bowled a ball that would go away from him, I would have forced him to drive the ball as it is his favourite shot. So I would keep forcing him to play the drive shot at my pace," he added.
Akhtar also said that he wishes that Kohli could have played against some of the top bowlers in the game.
The Rawalpindi Express said that Kohli would have enjoyed the challenge of facing bowlers like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, and Waqar Younis.
"I would also keep talking to him, because if I get him to lose his focus then that would have been great. The great thing about Kohli is that he gets more focused when he is challenged. But I believe Virat Kohli would have still scored the same amount of runs if I was playing," Akhtar said.
"I really wish that he had played against Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shane Warne, and then Virat would have also enjoyed the challenge," he added.
Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.
Over the years, comparisons between Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have been growing and many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar.
Tendulkar called time on his career after registering 100 international centuries, while Kohli has 70 centuries across all formats.
Currently, Kohli is ranked at the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings while he is in second place in the Tests rankings.
Rome, Jan 19: India's star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya kicked off the Olympic year in style, winning a gold medal each in their respective weight categories at the Rome Ranking Series here.
The 25-year-old Bajrang staged a remarkable comeback to secure a 4-3 win against USA's Jordan Michael Oliver in the summit showdown of the 65kg freestyle category.
Ravi, who competed in the 61kg category instead of his regular 57kg, also bagged gold after getting the better of Kazakhstan's Nurbolat Abdualiyev 12-2 in his final bout late on Saturday night.
The 23-year-old from Sonepat had made the final round after securing impressive wins over Moldova's Alexaandru Chirtoaca and Kazakhstan's Nurislam Sanayev.
Up against one of India's biggest medal prospects in the Tokyo Olympics, Oliver conceded that it was not his night against Bajrang.
The American lauded the competitive spirit of Bajrang.
"Wasn't my night… but I got a lot of work to do to be where I want to be! Hats off to @BajrangPunia dude is heck of a competitor! Until next time my friend," the American tweeted.
Bajrang had to sweat it out in the first round against Zain Allen Retherford of the USA before prevailing 5-4.
In the quarterfinal, the ace Indian wrestler went past another American Joseph Christopher Mc Kenna 4-2, before getting the better of Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine 6-4 in the semi-finals.
However, it was curtains for Jitender in the 74kg and world championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in the 86kg category.
Jitender won his first bout against Denys Pavlov of Ukraine 10-1 before going down in the quarterfinals against Turkey's Soner Demirtas 4-0.
Jitender got a chance to fight in the repechage after Demirtas entered the final, but the Indian wasted the opportunity, losing 2-9 to Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan.
In the 86kg category, Deepak crashed out in the opening round, losing 1-11 to Ethan Adrian Ramos of Puerto Rico.
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