They say winning is a habit and with this habit comes a never die attitude, which has been evident in this Indian team during the course of their historic 5-0 T20I series triumph over New Zealand at their own backward.
At Bay Oval on Sunday night, much like the previous two games, at the halfway stage of their run-chase the Blackcaps were very much in the game, with a set Ross Taylor, playing in his 100th T20I and Tim Seifert, who has been the most impressive Kiwi cricketer in this series. But yet again the Indian bowling unite showed tremendous maturity under presser to pull off a seven-run victory from the jaws of defeat.
Chasing a tricky 164 on an used surface (prior to the men’s game New Zealand women played against South Africa women on that pitch), the hosts were in trouble at 17/3 after Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar removed in the in-form Kiwi openers – Martin Guptill (2) and Colin Munro (15) – respectively. Soon Tom Bruce got himself run-out following a misunderstanding with Seifert.
However, the experienced Ross Tayor then steadied the ship combined with wicketkeeper-batsman Seifert as the duo stitched a 99-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Meanwhile in the middle overs, when asking rate was getting stiff, the Blackcaps got a huge boost thanks to a 34-run over by medium pacer Shivam Dube. After Stuart Broad’s famous 36-run thrashing against Yuvraj Singh back in 2007 World T20, this was the second most expensive over in the history of international T20 cricket.
That over got the hosts back into the match as they needed just 66 off the last 10 overs with seven wickets still in the kitty.
However, yet again the Blackcaps messed things up drastically. Following the wicket of Seifert, who departed to Navdeep Saini after a well-played fifty, New Zealand collapsed from 116/4 to 133/8 after the resistance of Taylor ended at 53 off 47, his innings helped with five boundaries and two huge sixes.
The Kiwis eventually finished at 156/9, handing over the visitors yet another hard-fought victory.
For India Bumrah, with excellent figures of 3 for 12 was the best Indian bowler on the park. He was supported by Saini, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar. Also, KL Rahul, who led the side on the park after stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma was retired hurt while batting, was spot on with his tactics, barring that one of over of Dube.
Earlier winning the toss and batting first, Sanju Samson once again departed early. However, batting at No. 3 Rohit looked in good touch as he alongside Rahul took the Indian innings forward with a 88-run second wicket stand.
Rohit scored a 41-ball 60 before heading back to the dressing room with a calf injury. Rahul, meanwhile missed out on his fifty by five runs. But a responsible knock by Shreyas Iyer (33*) and towards the end a cameo by Manish Pandey (4-ball 11) took India past the 160-run mark, which in the end proved to be enough.
Brief scores:
India 163/3 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma retd hurt 63, KL Rahul 45; Scott Kuggeleijn 2/25) beat New Zealand 156/9 in 20 overs (Ross Taylor 53, Tim Seifert 50; Jasprit Bumrah 3/12, Navdeep Saini 2/23, Shardul Thakur 2/38) by 7 runs.
Player of the match: Jasprit Bumrah
Player of the series: KL Rahul