Hamilton, 1 November: India won the five-match T20I series against New Zealand 3-2 despite losing the final match by seven wickets at Seddon Park on Sunday. Tim Seifert hit 93 off 50 balls and Glenn Phillips an unbeaten 65 as New Zealand chased 192 with two overs to spare.
Ishan Kishan’s 61 and a quick half-century from Shreyas Iyer had lifted India to 191/8 after Adam Milne had taken both openers early on his way to four wickets.
Kishan and Iyer rebuild after early wickets
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to bowl on a pitch that helped the seamers early on. Milne removed both India openers inside the powerplay. Abhishek Sharma went for a duck and Sanju Samson for four, leaving India on 19/2 in 3.1 overs.
Kishan and Iyer then added 93 in just 43 balls. Kishan reached his fifty off 28 balls and went on to 61. Iyer got to his half-century off 22 balls but was caught off Nathan Smith next ball.
Naman Dhir made 33 off 23 balls, but India could not keep up the scoring rate in the last few overs. Milne finished with 4/19 as India closed on 191/8.
Seifert falls seven short of a hundred
Arshdeep Singh struck early in the chase when Finn Allen top-edged to Kishan, keeping wicket, for 9. Seifert, dropped early in his innings, hit back hard and New Zealand reached 59/1 at the end of the powerplay. He brought up his fifty off 34 balls.
Varun Chakravarthy removed Daryl Mitchell for 29, with Abhishek taking a diving catch at long-off, but Seifert kept going. His 93 included 11 fours and five sixes. He was out when he tried to drive a good-length ball from Nitish Kumar Reddy through the covers and dragged a thick inside edge onto his stumps. It would have been his first T20I century.
Phillips sets a series record
Seifert and Phillips put on 86 together. Phillips finished unbeaten on 65 off 38 balls and hit the winning boundary through third man. He ended the series with 341 runs, the most by any batter in a five-match bilateral T20I series, going past Phil Salt’s 331.
How India won the series
India built a 3-0 lead with four-wicket wins in both Christchurch matches and a six-wicket win in Wellington. The opening match was set up by Sanju Samson’s 33-ball 67 in a record chase. New Zealand hit back with an 87-run win in Auckland and finished with Sunday’s win in Hamilton.
Abhishek had returned to No. 1 in the ICC T20I batting rankings during the series, but he was out for a duck in the final match.
ODI series next
The two sides now switch to a five-match ODI series, which starts on 4 November. India have added Auqib Nabi to their squad for the first three matches.
Brief scores
India 191/8 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 61, Naman Dhir 33; Adam Milne 4/19) lost to New Zealand 192/3 in 18 overs (Tim Seifert 93, Glenn Phillips 65 not out, Daryl Mitchell 29) by seven wickets. India won the series 3-2.
