Rohit Sharma batted in style and led panache to script a near-perfect tale on his full-time captaincy debut as India handed T20 World Cup runners-up New Zealand the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat after a 73 run wins in the third T20 International in Kolkata on Sunday.
India beat New Zealand by 73 runs in the third T20I in Kolkata. India posted a total of 184/7 before bowling New Zealand out for 11. The win completed a 3-0 clean sweep for the hosts.
Style of Rohit Sharma:
Rohit Sharma batted in style and led panache to script a near-perfect tale on his full-captain debut as India handed T20 World Cup runners-up New Zealand the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat after a 73 run wins in the third T20 International in Kolkata on Sunday.
The Indian skipper first made a stunning scoring 56 off 31 balls in India’s 184 for seven and then made some immaculate captaincy calls which witnessed New Zealand’s surrender for a paltry 111 runs in 17.2 overs.Â
It was a second-to-back bilateral T20I series triumph with a clean sweep for India after beating the Black Caps 5-0 in their dee in 2020. Axar Patel (3/9) bowled accurately and got one to turn as his three wickets in Powerplay ended New Zealand’s resistance, and the rest was a mere formality.
The New Zealand team looked bone-tired after a gruelling T20 World Cup campaign, and the result won’t be a fair reflection of the team’s capabilities as they went through the motions for the better part of the three games. For India, aiming to reset the button, the series win will undoubtedly give them some pointers as we advance.Â
Rahul Dravid’s role:
For Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid, this series checked their ammunition in the future. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin’s back to form in white-ball cricket made well, as there is no way for the experience.
Venkatesh Iyer has potential and needs to be persisted with. He bowled steadily and needed more game time to become a middle-order enforcer, a top-order player.Â
New-comer Harshal Patel:
Harshal Patel is a welcome addition with his sincere efforts, but the middle order remains a bit iffy as it doesn’t perform up to expectation in any of the games. Some like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Avnesh Khan went untested, but the skipper will surely use all his options going forward.
Rohit’s imperious form was on full display when India batted as he laid the platform for an above par score. In his bid to test the team’s performance by batting first, the skipper led with five fours and three sixes in his sublime knock.
Still, despite a blazing start, the Indians stuttered in the middle overs before Harshal Patel (18 off 11 balls) and Deepak Chahar (21 out of 8 balls) used their long handles, which fetched 50 runs in the last five overs. Ishan Kishan (29 off 21 balls), Shreyas Iyer (25 off 20 balls) and Venkatesh (20 off 15 balls) all got starts but couldn’t convert it into a big score.
Rohit pulled Boult:
There was no looking back for Rohit, having two flashy back-to-back boundaries off the very first over Trent Boult. There was n preferential treatment as all the fast bowlers were treated with equal division as he and Kishan made full use of the Powerplay overs, which yielded 69 runs.
Rohit pulled Boult behind square for his first six and hit Adam Milne (0/47 in 4 overs) over long for the court into the stand below the giant electronic scoreboard. Post Powerplay stand-in captain Mitchell Santner (4-0-27-3) was able to pull things back as Kishan edged an arm ball into the keeper’s gloves.
