Hamilton: New Zealand denied India a perfect finish to their highly successful tour Down Under by clinching the T20 series 2-1 with a narrow four-run win in the third match here Sunday.
India savoured a historic Test and ODI bilateral series win in Australia before recording their biggest ODI series win on New Zealand soil. A first ever T20 series triumph would have been an icing on the cake but the hosts held their nerves to pull off a thrilling victory.
With Sunday’s result, India have lost their first T20 series after winning nine and drawing one.
Exploiting batting friendly conditions at the small Seddon Park ground, New Zealand cut the Indian attack to shreds to post an imposing 212 for four. Openers Colin Munro (72, 40b, 5×4, 5×6) and Tim Seifert (43, 25b, 3×4, 3×6) gave the hosts a flying start putting on 80 runs in less than eight overs to lay foundation for a big score.
Krunal Pandya (0/54) was the most expensive of the Indian bowlers. If it was not for left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav’s (2/26) tight bowling in the middle-overs and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/37), India would have got a bigger target to chase.
Captain Rohit Sharma (38, 32b, 3×4) was uncharacteristically slow at the top of the order and that also hurt India’s chase.
Vijay Shankar (43, 28b, 5×4, 2×6) played a useful knock after Shikhar Dhawan (5) fell early.
Rishabh Pant (28, 12b, 1×4, 3×6) and Hardik Pandya (21, 11b, 1×4, 2×6) infused some life into India’s chase with some brutal hitting but perished while trying to keep up with a steep scoring rate.
India needed 16 runs off the final over and Dinesh Karthik (33 n o, 4×6) after taking a double off the first ball, stunned the crowd and his teammates by refusing to take a single in the third ball. Krunal (26 n o 30b, 2×4, 2×6) had reached the striker’s end but Karthik did not run, sending his partner back. This was after umpire did not give a clear wide bowled by Tim Southee.
Karthik could only manage a single off the next ball as Southee bowled a yorker. By then, the match had clearly slipped out of India’s hands.
Both Karthik and Krunal did exceedingly well to take the game into the final over but their unbeaten 63-run stand off 28 balls did not prove to be enough.
Earlier, Bhuvneshwar was hit for a six by Munro in his first over but the lean pacer responded with splendid block-hole deliveries in the next over.
The Kiwis though did keep a very healthy run-rate, racing to 50 in just 5.2 overs when Munro heaved one off Krunal for a huge six and followed it up with a boundary on the off side. Krunal leaked 20 runs in that over.
Indian bowlers had conceded 79 runs in first seven overs when Rohit brought Kuldeep and the leg-spinner straight away made an impact, by getting Seifert stumped with MS Dhoni’s lightening quick hands at work.
There was no respite for the Indian bowlers in the last stage of the Kiwi innings as Daryl Mitchell (19, 11b, 3×4) and Ross Taylor (14, 7b, 1×4, 1×6) helped New Zealand finish the innings strongly.
Brief scores
New Zealand: 212 for 4 (Colin Munro 72, Tim Seifert 43; Kuldeep Yadav 2/26) bt India 208 for 6 (Vijay Shankar 43, Rohit Sharma 38, Dinesh Karthik 33 n o, Mitchell Shankar 3/32) by four runs.
PTI