India beat NZ

Fifth ODI, Wellington: New Zealand 168 all out (42.4 overs) v India 169-8. India won by two wickets

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Cairns returned after knee surgery

India finally beat New Zealand in a one-day international - but almost threw it away.

They had a small target of 169 to win after New Zealand were bowled out for 168 but India were struggling on 116-7 at one stage.

However Yuvraj Singh (54) and Zaheer Khan (34no) steered India to their first win on the tour.

New Zealand had boasted their strongest one-day line-up for a year with the return of all-rounder Chris Cairns and Shane Bond.

Pictures from Wellington

But skipper Stephen Fleming's decision to bat first on a soggy pitch backfired.

Andre Adams was joint-top scorer along with Brendon McCullum with 35 runs off 33 balls.

The long-awaited return of Sachin Tendulkar was a flop as he registered a duck.

And Anil Kumble was the victim of an unfortunate hit wicket.

Kumble, who was fooled by a ball which slipped out of Andre Adams' hand, stepped back and clipped the stumps with his bat.

India clung on and recorded a morale-boosting victory after a torrid tour, in which they lost the Test series 2-0.

New Zealand now have a winning 4-1 lead in the seven-match one-day series.

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New Zealand: S P Fleming (Capt), N J Astle, M S Sinclair C Z Harris, C L Cairns, S B Styris, B B McCullum (Wkt), A R Adams D L Vettori, D R Tuffey, S E Bond.

India: S C Ganguly (Capt), V Sehwag, S R Tendulkar, R Dravid (Wkt) Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, D Mongia, A Kumble, Z Khan, J Srinath A Nehra.

Umpires: B F Bowden and D J Harper