Iyer waves away India's batting. The seamers earned him that right, once

India won the fifth ODI at the Bay Oval by 22 runs, bowling New Zealand out for 187 after making only 209 themselves. That gave them the five-match series 3-1, on top of the 3-2 T20I win, and handed New Zealand their first home bilateral series defeat since 2019, as ESPNcricinfo noted.

Stand-in captain Shreyas Iyer was in no mood to apologise for how it looked. Speaking after the match, as reported by ESPNcricinfo, he admitted neither side's batting had clicked, said the pitches favoured bowlers, and then drew a line under it.

The defence was built on one decision. Iyer bowled his seamers and kept bowling them. ESPNcricinfo's report says spin did not arrive until the 36th over, the longest India had waited to use spin in an ODI since Auckland in 2003.

Arshdeep Singh finished with 3 for 30 from his ten overs, and Mohammed Siraj, in his first game of the tour, took 2 for 50, including Tim Seifert and Finn Allen, as the ICC's report highlighted. Both had also hit 14 with the bat at the end of India's innings, which is the only reason India passed 200 at all.

The opposing captain saw it the same way. Mitchell Santner told reporters the pitch had more "nip" and up-and-down bounce once the lights took over, and that Iyer read it.

Santner's broader point was that 3-1 flatters India. He pointed to Wellington, where New Zealand were bowled out for 134, and to this chase, which they reached at 80 for 2 before losing their way. He also argued the T20Is could have gone 3-2 the other way.

There is something in it. Two of India's three wins came under DLS in rain-shortened games, and New Zealand won the one full game they dominated by 244 runs. But a captain who says a series "could have gone either way" is also admitting his batters lost the moments that decided it.

Iyer is right about one thing and wrong to stop there.

He is right that this was a bowlers' series, and India's seamers won it. Across the four completed games they took 29 of the 37 wickets that fell to India's bowlers, at an average of 21.0. In the three wins that tightens to 24 wickets at 17.8. India's spinners, Axar Patel's useful work aside, averaged 26.6, and Kuldeep Yadav went for 73 wicketless runs in the 89-all-out defeat. Gurnoor Brar finished with 9 wickets at 15.9 and was Player of the Series.

That matters straight away. The first Test starts at the Basin Reserve on November 19 (03:30 IST), and Brar has already been added to the Test squad in place of Kuldeep. The ODI numbers are the strongest evidence India have that a November pitch in New Zealand rewards a seam-first attack. We would pick the Test XI from that evidence and not from reputation: Brar's height and bounce did more here than any spinner did.

Where "we don't think much about the rest" does not hold is the batting. India scored 17.3 runs per wicket. Their only total above 200 was the 209 that Siraj and Arshdeep rescued with 28 runs between them at number ten and eleven. Kohli made 86 in the series and was still the top Indian scorer. Rohit made 30 off 48 balls with two ducks. Iyer himself fell to the short ball again on Sunday, as both ESPNcricinfo and the ICC pointed out.

With a 50-over World Cup coming in 2027, a series where your top order collectively failed is not something to file away because the bowlers covered it. The seamers have earned India a win. They should not be asked to keep earning the batting a pass.

The white-ball leg is over: India won both series, 3-2 and 3-1, with a squad that changed shape from game to game. Iyer said the "chopping and changing" was hard on players but refused to make it an excuse.

New Zealand head to the Tests with Will Young's 125 in the fourth ODI and a bowling group Santner was happy with. India head there with a seam attack in form and a clear lesson from the Bay Oval: in these conditions, the side that bowls the most seam overs well wins. The Basin Reserve will test whether India have learnt it.