Shreyas Iyer acknowledged that both India and New Zealand struggled while batting, but said his side had the belief they needed to win the final ODI in the series.

India won the fifth and final match by 22 runs on Sunday, claiming a 3-1 series victory in the process.

The Men in Blue struggled to gain early rhythm with the bat and were 86-4 by the 18th over, but Axar Patel and Ishan Kishan both scored 46 to help steady the ship somewhat.

However, once the pair were dismissed, Mitchell Santner (3-47) took three wickets in the space of four overs to help stop India at 209 in the 43rd over.

New Zealand failed to offer much of a response in the chase, though, and though they were not all skittled out until the 49th over, they mustered just 187 runs, with Dean Foxcroft top-scoring with 31.

The batting struggles were a theme throughout the series, with India posting more than 200 just once in the four completed games, while none of their batters managed a century.

"Batting, definitely, neither ours nor theirs clicked. But both bowling units consistently did well," Iyer said.

"And the wickets were predominantly bowler-supporting as well. But the most important thing for us was to win the series - and we won. We don't think much about the rest.

"Every individual will reflect on themselves. We have been playing for a long time. So if you play a long series, you get exhausted mentally.

"Adaptability is a challenge for every wicket as well. But you keep learning, and definitely you accept the challenge and move on."

𝙒.𝙄.𝙉.𝙉.𝙀.𝙍.𝙎 #TeamIndia make it out of series wins so far in New Zealand #NZvIND https://t.co/G4a496NyFX

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 15, 2026

"Coming out triumphant, I think it's a great achievement, and we had that certain kind of belief even though we didn't get that many runs in batting.

"But still, we were hoping that we could change the game at any point of time, and I'm glad that every individual thought in the same direction and we were able to execute that."

At least one team was bowled out for a sub-200 total in each of the ODIs.

This was also New Zealand's first loss in a home bilateral series since 2019. They also lost the T20I series 3-2.

"It's easy to look at the scoreline. It's obviously a lost series, and I think it was a very close series; it could've gone either way," Santner said.

"We should've got more than 130-odd in Wellington, maybe defended that; we should've chased that down here.

"Even looking back at the T20Is, we definitely let one slip in Christchurch. It could've been a 3-2 [in our favour], so it's been a very competitive white-ball series across nine games."