India completed their 3-0 sweep in the T20I series versus New Zealand at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. In the final match of the series India won by 73-runs, mainly on the strength of Axar Patel’s triple strike.
India had won the first two matches, in Jaipur and Ranchi, convincingly, having already sealed the series 2-0 before entering the Eden.
On Sunday India won the toss and elected to bat. India Scored 184 for seven in 20 overs with captain Rohit Sharma scoring 56 off 31 deliveries. With opener KL Rahul being rested for this match, Ishan Kishan opened with Rohit. Kishan scored 29 off 21 deliveries to set up a good base for the rest to build on.
Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer scored 25 off 20 deliveries and 20 off 15 deliveries, respectively.
New Zealand ’s Mitchell Santner took three wickets for 27runs, but failed to stop the Indians from piling up the runs. Ish Sodhi took one wicket for 31runs.
Into the chase, the T20I World Cup runner-up were bowled out for 111, their innings completing in 17.2 overs. Martin Guptil was again the better batsman of the side, with 51 from 36 deliveries and Tim Seifert scored 17 from 18 balls.
The prime reason for this collapse was Axar Patel, who picked up 3 wickets for just 9 runs. Aiding him was Harshal Patel, who took two wickets for 26.
Axar was declared Player of the Match. Rohit Sharma was declared Player of the Series.
In Jaipur, a refurbished India team had wiped off the T20 World Cup shame with a 5-wicket win. The duo of India’s new T20 captain Rohit Sharma and new coach Rahul Dravid made sure of the second match as well, with a 7-wicket win in Ranchi.
