Match Summary
End of India's dominance - New Zealand wrap up a dominant performance in style and get their first win of this five-match T20I series. The series might be long gone but this win will do wonders for the confidence of the Kiwi players as they look to put their best foot forward ahead of the T20 World Cup. The hosts looked unbeatable in the first three games but they have been handed a thumping here and this will give the team something to ponder upon as they too look to tweak a few things ahead of the mega event in home conditions.
Stepping up - Life is all about stepping up in the key moments and so far in this series, the Kiwis weren't quite able to achieve that. However, the case is different tonight as they were on it from the get-go with both bat and ball. Matt Henry dismissed Abhishek Sharma on the very first ball of the chase and that set the ball rolling. Jacob Duffy then pulled off a fine return catch to dismiss the other in-form batter and after that, they kept chipping in with wickets at regular intervals. The visitors did face some stiff resistance from Shivam Dube but once he was dismissed, they wrapped things up rather quickly. In terms of bowling, it was an all-round effort but the skipper, Mitchell Santner, led the wickets with 3 to his name and the pacers bowled particularly well.
A meek day out with the bat for India - Even with 216 needed for the win, India started as the favorites in the chase, simply because of what we had seen earlier in the series. Their spearhead with the bat, Abhishek Sharma, went for a golden duck and the top order never looked settled. Sanju Samson failed to grasp another golden opportunity but Rinku Singh showed promise of filling the gap at number 4, if needed. Shivam Dube was the one standout and he hit the ball as clean as anyone tonight. His knock of 65 from just 23 balls was the highlight of what was rather an underwhelming chase from India.
The 50
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