It was a dominating performance for India as they whitewashed New Zealand on Sunday. For the third time in a row Indian captain, Rohit Sharma won the toss. This time the Indian skipper chose to test his bowling unit by batting first. In the end, it was almost a perfect performance on the field.
India made two changes in the form of Ishan Kishan and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ishan played well and with some solid hitting from the lower order India was able to put 15 to 20 runs extra on the board. In the bowling department, Axar Patel had a great match and bowled exceptionally well.
The comeback star Yuzvendra Chahal did not have a good start but came back well. He took the important wicket of Martin Guptill. Harshal Patel also continued his good form. Venkatesh Iyer was used by Rohit as the sixth bowler. Meanwhile, behind the stumps, Rishabh Pant was excellent. New Zealand was blown away and never looked dangerous at any point of the match.
India vs New Zealand: Changed opening pair for the 3rd T20
Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan opened the batting for India, as KL Rahul was rested. As both the Mumbai Indians players came against their Mumbai Indian teammates in the form of Trent Boult and Adam Milne.
Indian openers started their dominance from the first ball itself. India posted 69 for 0 at the end of the first six overs. We saw some trademark pull shorts from Rohit and some superb shorts from Ishan as well.
For New Zealand, the main culprit was Lockie Ferguson as he conceded 30 of his two overs in the power play.
Santner causes slowdown
With the arrival of Santner, things slowed down. In the first over itself, he got breakthrough in the form of Ishan Kishan. After that Suryakumar Yadav came but his innings was not long as he also fell in the same over for a duck.
Ish Sodhi on the other hand was also economical. In the form of Rishabh Pant, Santner got his third when the wicketkeeper-batsman mistimed a slog sweep. The arrival of the spinners made the scoring runs hard as from 6th to 10th over, India could not hit a boundary.
Iyers steadied the ship, as Harshal and Chahar fished with an exhibition
India lost three wickets in quick succession which slowed down the innings. After the wicket of Rohit, things looked bad for Team India. It was the time when both Shreyas and Venkatesh started rebuilding. After being set, Venkatesh broke the shackles by hitting boundaries as well as rotating the strike.
Venkatesh looked in good touch as he targeted the straight boundaries. On the other hand, Shreyas scored many of his runs in the square region. The pair brought the team back on track with a partnership of 36 runs.
But both of them fell in a space of three balls. Venkatesh fell to Trent Boult looking to get a boundary and the same was with Shreyas as well. After both the set batsmen fell, it looked like India would end up 15-20 short of their target.
However, the likes of Harshal and Chahar came up with some useful contributions. Together they both put up 39 runs in the death overs.
Axar dismantles the Kiwis
It was obvious that dew was going to be a major problem for the bowlers. The start was not so great for the fast bowlers. However, Rohit from the third over brought Axar into the attack.
This move paid off perfectly for the skipper. Axar took two wickets in the first over itself. In his second over he took one more wicket and totally put the New Zealand innings off the track.
Harshal and Iyer continued the momentum
Although the top order was in the dugout, Guptill was in the middle and looked very dangerous. Rohit then brought Venkatesh into the mix. Venkatesh did not disappoint as he bowled perfectly.
Harshal on the other hand was great as usual with his slower ones and variations. The first two overs of Chahal were expensive but when he was brought back, he took the important wicket Guptill.
In the 11th over, the score was 70 runs for 4 wickets for Kiwis. After that it looked like it was just matter of time before the opposition were all out. It was same kind of performance that of the previous two matches as India sweep clean the Kiwis.
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