Five games in 11 days that’s how quickly the recent NZ vs IND T20I series has flown by. Shreyas Iyer‘s side took the series by a 3-2 margin despite losing the last two games of the campaign. New Zealand won the final game of the series on Sunday in Hamilton by seven wickets with two overs to spare.
Indian skipper Iyer seemed pleased with the series win but was disappointed with the two losses in the last two games. Speaking at the end of the game, the31-year-old said, “When you come overseas, you are challenged by different aspects. The more you take the challenge head-on, thebetter it is for the team. We tried to do that today, but sadly couldn’t. We have to work on a few things, one of which is fielding, and that’s the one we have to improve on.”
Team India made a terrible start when they lost Abhishek Sharma (1) and Sanju Samson to Adam Milne, who was named the Player of the Match. At that stage, it looked like the Kiwi bowlers were going to restrict India to a below-par total. The visitors managed to recover before they lost a few more quick wickets in the middle overs and ended up with a mere 191.
Ishan Kishan top-scored with 61 and added 93 runs for the third wicket with his captain. Speaking about this, Shreyas said, “We could have started well, considering how we batted in the middle overs. Ishan and I got some momentum back into the innings, but then we lost a few quick wickets, which put the pressure on the new batters. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat, especially when the ball is seaming and holding up a bit on the wicket.”
New Zealand skipper reflects on missed chances in initial games
Mitchell Santner was happy with the way his team bounced back to win the final two games of the series. The left-arm spinner was asked if things could have been different if his side had fielded better in the first few games. The hosts dropped 14 catches during the course of the series that gave India the advantage.
“We’ll have to reflect on things. It was a tight series against a good team. The small moments in the first few games impacted us. We should have won those games as well, and the series would have looked different. The batting and bowling were good, and the guys adapted well in the last few games, and there have been a lot of positives.”