India needed to win the Auckland ODI to keep the series against New Zealand alive as they trailed 2-0 having lost the first two matches.
New Zealand batted first and were all out after scoring a huge 314 target thanks to Martin Guptill's century.
The Indian team which had to ring in the changes replaced Ishant Sharma with Varun Aaron but Suresh Raina and R Ashwin still made the team.
The Indian bowlers produced a much better performance in the death overs managing to get the Kiwis all out.
Mohammad Shami (2/84) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/47) were the best bowlers, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/48), Varun Aaron (1/52) and R Ashwin (1/47) chipping in with a wicket each.
Jadeja would star with the bat too as India managed to eke out a tie and keep the series alive.
After the openers got off to a great start, India suffered a middle order collapse.
Virat Kohli, the only Indian batsman who offered resistance was out for a cheap 6 and India looked in bad shape, but Dhoni played a handy knock scoring 50 as Jadeja batted with the tail, almost helping India get over the line.
The all-rounder who thanks to a Wikipedia glitch has earned the name Sir Jadeja scored 65 runs in quick time keeping pace with the balls and runs required in the nail-bitting match.
It was dramatic finish in the end, with a tie which caused Twitter to go into overdrive with praises for the 25-year-old rising Indian star. Jadeja hit some awesome, lusty blows as India needed 2 runs off the last ball but were unable to get over the line.
The tie ensured that India remained in No1 in the ICC ODI rankings, having regained it after Australia's defeat to England, on Friday.
Here are some interesting tweets about Sir Jadeja which was trending:
Achievement is when world crack jokes on him by calling him #SirJadeja and he turned it into Reality
— HARI KIRAN (@harikiranroyal) January 25, 2014
#sirjadeja could have hit the ball for six or four but he chose to take a single becoz Aloknath said don't break someone's heart . #IndvsNZ
— BaKChoD (@tHeMantal) January 25, 2014
The only man who can survive 3 run-outs, 2 drop catches & still after edging to the keeper stays not out is none other than #SirJadeja
— Mandar. (@maddyy08) January 25, 2014
Lalit Modi banned #SirJadeja for one season of IPL but Sir then banned Lalit Modi for the entire..
— बीच में ना बोल (@nikkammaa) January 25, 2014
#SirJadeja trending top on Twitter after so long. Back to square one !
— Pratik Prasenjit (@pratikprasenjit) January 25, 2014
India win, they stay No.1. India lose, India drop to No.2. #SirJadeja thinks, let me play around. Tied match. ICC Rankings confused! EPIC!
— Jigar Shah (@jigar1141) January 25, 2014
Oh my god! #SirJadeja is trending for what? For saving India from series defeat? If he is a batting allorunder he should have won the match.
— Ashish Bidkar (@ashishbidkar) January 25, 2014
India can't win the series now as New Zealand have already won two matches. But fans are hoping the team is able to tie the series like this match by winning the remaining two ODIs in the series.
