India whitewash New Zealand, win T20I series 3-0 after defeating the visitors by 73 runs in the third and final match at Eden Gardens
Kolkata, Nov 21 (Agency) Another impressive performance from India helped them complete a clean sweep that put New Zealand out of their misery in the T20I series. Having already clinched the series, India rested KL Rahul and Ravichandran Ashwin in the dead rubber in Kolkata on Sunday (November 21) and brought in Ishan Kishan and Yuzvendra Chahal. Those moves didn’t alter the result as India continued to hammer a New Zealand side that just looked out of its depth despite featuring in a T20 World Cup final exactly a week prior to this game. Axar Patel declared Man of the Match for taking 3 wickets for 9 in three overs in the third and final T20I match against New Zealand. Team India Captain Rohit Sharma declared Man of the Series for scoring 159 off 103 balls with a strike-rate of 154 in the three-match T20I series against the Blackcaps.
Indian head coach Rahul Dravid says “I think it was a really good series win. Everyone played well right through the series. It’s nice to start well but we are realistic and we need to keep our feet on the ground. It’s not easy for New Zealand to show up after a World Cup final and play three games in six days. We have to keep our feet on the ground and learn some things on the way forward. It’s been really good to see some of the younger guys come through. We gave opportunities to some guys who haven’t played a lot of cricket in the last few months with some more experienced guys taking a break. We’ve seen some good learnings and going forward we need to keep developing those skills going forward. It’s really great to see that we’ve got options and can mix and match. It’s going to be a long season between now and the next World Cup being realistic with how much cricket some of our experienced players will play.
Not at all. Guptill’s wicket pretty much ended their challenge. The opener attempted another no-look shot to no avail as Yuzvendra Chahal opened his wicket and from thereon, it was a landslide. Harshal Patel got into the act, Venkatesh Iyer picked up a wicket after finally getting to bowl and New Zealand also self-destructed with two run-outs. The visitors barely managed to cross 100 and were bowled out in the 18th over to succumb to a 73-run loss.
Brief scores: India 184/7 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 56, Ishan Kishan 29; Mitchell Santner 3-27). New Zealand 111 in 17.2 overs (Martin Guptill 51; Axar Patel 3-9, Harshal Patel 2-26).