BENGALURU: With India having already pocketed the T20I series against New Zealand a couple of days back, it provided the new team management an opportunity to try other players in the third T20I at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. If one has followed Rahul Dravid during his India A and U-19 coaching days, he prefers giving players good game time. Likewise, India decided to rest R Ashwin and KL Rahul as Yuzvendra Chahal and Ishan Kishan featured in the playing XI.
At the toss, it was evident that the team wanted to test themselves. After calling it right, Rohit Sharma decided to bat first and see how they would fare defending a total under dew. India came up with their best all-round display to clinch the game by 73 runs and the series 3-0 too.
Openers Rohit and Kishan helped India get off to a solid start. They were 69/0 in the first six overs. The challenge that the Indian team were looking for came immediately seventh over onwards. India lost Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Sharma between the 7-12th over.
Shreyas Iyer (25) and Venkatesh Iyer (20) shouldered responsibility with some good boundaries. However, what might have pleased Dravid and Co would be the contribution from the number eight batter Harshal Patel (11-ball 18) and number nine Deepak Chahar (8-ball 21) at the end which powered India to 184/7.
With India defending a total for the first time in the series, it was expected to be a big test. But, India looked a dominant team as New Zealand were reduced to 22/2 inside the first three overs. Barring Martin Guptill’s half-century, none of the Kiwi batters impressed with slow left-arm Axar Patel (3/9) making life tough for the Black Caps. Brief scores: India 184/7 in 20 ovs (Rohit 56, Santner 3/27) bt New Zealand 111 in 17.2 ovs (Guptill 51, Axar 3/9).