IND vs NZ: 3rd T20I Review – India start new era in T20Is with a series whitewash

India defeated New Zealand in the third and the final T20I at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 21. The hosts won the match by a massive margin of 73 runs and claimed the series 3-0. The match was quite one-sided in the end.

Earlier in the evening, Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. India got off to a flyer with an opening stand of 69 runs in just 6.2 overs. After that, India did lose the way a little with some wickets but crucial runs through the batting order helped them get a good total in the end. Rohit Sharma made 56 runs from 31 balls. Ishan Kishan scored 29, Shreyas Iyer made 25 and Venkatesh Iyer made 20. Valuable contributions came from Harshal Patel (18 from 11) and Deepak Chahar (21 from 8).

All of that took India to 184 for 7. Stand-in captain Mitchell Santner was the pick of the bowlers of New Zealand with a spell of 3 for 27. With the bat, New Zealand were quite bad. They were never in the chase; they lost early wickets and never recovered. Martin Guptill made 51 runs from 36 balls as it was the only healthy contribution.

For India, Axar Patel picked up three scalps while Harshal Patel picked up two. Venkatesh, Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal also picked up a wicket each as they helped bowling out New Zealand for just 111.

Top performers:

Rohit Sharma:

The skipper’s record in Kolkata in all forms of the game have been quite excellent in the past and he repeated a feat. This was his first fifty in T20Is at this venue and his knock was quite crucial given how the batters struggled when the ball was old. He hit five fours and three sixes.

Axar Patel: The score of 185 was always going to be challenging but it would have been tough for the spinners to manage to bowl with the dew. However, Patel did everything with his spell which changed the game completely. He took the wickets of Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman and Glenn Phillips inside the powerplay as New Zealand never recovered. He gave only nine runs in his three overs.

Records/Achievements:

• Rohit became the second player after Martin Guptill to hit 150 sixes in T20Is.
• Sharma now also holds the record of most 50 plus scores in T20Is (30).
• Harshal Patel became only the second Indian player after KL Rahul to get a hit-wicket in T20Is.

Way ahead:

India and New Zealand will now play the first Test from November 25 in Kanpur.