India Hammer New Zealand To Complete T20i Series Whitewash

Summary

• India win third T20 by 73 runs
• India win T20 series 3-0
• Rohit Sharma wins player of the series award

India expected New Zealand to put up a strong fight in the three match T20 series based on the fact that the Kiwis played so well in the recent T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where they finished as runners-up to Australia after losing the final.

The Kiwis looked rather drained in this T20 series and did not push India in any of the three T20 games. India ended up winning the first two T20 matches and in doing so won the series. The third match which took place on Nov 21 was a dead rubber and a chance for the Kiwis to regain some pride and finish the series 2-1.

Isran Khan

India batted first and their captain Rohit Sharma played a blistering knock at the top of the order blasting 56 of 31 balls to give India a great start. They lost their way in the middle as the Kiwis dismissed Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant cheaply and brought down the run rate. Deepak Chahar hit some lusty blows at the end of the innings and scored 21 from 8 balls to push India to 184.

Martin Guptill once again gave the Kiwis a good start scoring 51 from 36 balls but the rest of the Kiwi batters failed to get going. Axar Patel was the chief destroyer taking 3 wickets from his 3 overs while Harshal Patel picked up 2 wickets from his 3 overs.

The Kiwis ended up being bowled out for 111 from 17.2 overs to give India another easy victory. New Zealand will be disappointed with their performance as a 0-3 whitewash is definitely not what they wanted.

Rohit Sharma was awarded the man of the series award as he has been brilliant with the bat and with his captaincy. The BCCI did not confirm prior to the start of the series if R Sharma was going to be the permanent captain in T20 matches but with this 3-0 impressive series win, the BCCI will most likely confirm Rohit Sharma as the next T20 captain.

India and New Zealand will now compete in a two match test series, with the first test set to start on Nov 25 in Kanpur.