Hamilton: Whenever the team requires a breakthrough in the limited-overs matches, Yuzvendra Chahal, known for his bagful of tricks, has been India’s go-to bowler.

Chahal has developed a reputation for himself as a wicket-taker in his short yet effective international career. But on Thursday, he made headlines not for his bowling but for his ‘impressive batting’ during the fourth ODI between India and New Zealand.

It was tail-ender Chahal, who held one end and showed guts to survive the onslaught, top-scoring with the bat even if the men in blue suffered an epic collapse against New Zealand.

The 28-year old became the only second batsman to top-score in a match for India while batting at the No 10 or a lower position.

Playing an 18-run knock off 37 balls, his unbeaten innings is second to only Javagal Srinath’s 43 against Pakistan in 1998 in Toronto which came while batting at number 10.

Kuldeep Yadav (15) and Chahal, the spin-twins, knitted a 35-run stand for the ninth wicket bailing out India from an embarrassing situation.

Despite his best efforts, the visitors could only manage to post a dismal 92 on the board in 30.5 overs as left-arm paceman Trent Boult picked 5/21 in his devastating spell of 10 consecutive overs.

India were dismissed for their seventh lowest ODI total — 92. The hosts won by eight wickets to pull one back in the five-match series, which stands 3-1 in favour of India.

“It’s purely a conditions thing … It was nice to see the ball move in the air like that. I feel like I am a different bowler definitely when it swings. I made the most of it today,” Boult said.

The fifth and final ODI is in Wellington on Sunday.