New Zealand opener Devon Conway, whose superb 100-ball 138 went in vain as India won the third ODI to clean sweep the series, said his team's failure to build more partnerships and putting the Indian bowlers under pressure led to their defeat at the Holkar Stadium here.
Chasing a mammoth total of 385/9l, New Zealand got off to the worst possible start as Hardik Pandya removed Finn Allen for a duck in the very first over. However, the early wicket didn't affect Conway and Henry Nicholls much as they raised 106 runs for the second wicket before Nicholls was out.
Conway and Daryl Mitchell then took the score to 184. But Shardul Thakur scalped three back-to-back wickets of Mitchell (24), Tom Latham (0) and Glenn Phillips (5) to swing the contest back into India's favour, leaving New Zealand struggling at 200/5 after 27.4 overs.
They were eventually bowled out for 295 in 41.2 overs. Conway said the wicket was good for batting and they could have done better if they stitched together more partnerships.
"Personally I felt the wicket was really nice to bat on - it was coming on nicely, there wasn't a heap of the amount of spin out there, so we just sort of missed the trick in building more partnerships and putting their bowlers under pressure for a long period of time," he said.
New Zealand ODI captain for this series Tom Latham said was disappointed by the fact that their innings lasted just past 40 overs, but felt that the experience of playing in India will help his players in the ODI World Cup later this year.
"It's our last experience in India before the World Cup so the guys are exposed to these conditions in the three games and hopefully it'll be helpful in October.
We're building depth in this group without (Tim) Southee and others. Fingers crossed about my form for the World Cup," Latham said after the match.