Rohit and Axar sparkle as India complete 3-0 sweep
New Zealand, at no stage, showed any semblance of a fight. Not even when Guptill shellacked a breezy half-century.
New Zealand, at no stage, showed any semblance of a fight. Not even when Guptill shellacked a breezy half-century.
Scorer: M Venkat Raghav | Commentator: @PeterDellaPenna
10.51 pm Now for the post-match presentation.
Here's Mitchell Santner: "It's hard to project what the dew is going to be like. They bowled well at the top. Credit to them. I think we were probably a little bit off. We came up against a very good Indian side. They're tough to beat at home and it showed. The way they batted at the top put us under pressure early. [Kane Williamson] is a great player for us and with the Test matches coming up, it's understandable that other guys would get a chance and it was an opportunity too see different guys in different roles but India is a very tough side and they showed that again. Guptill showed good form, Chappy with a fifty in the first game were positives. We'll reflect on what we did wrong. It can be challenging to bowl with dew, but the way Axar adapted in the second game was good. We don't get that kind of dew in New Zealand."
Player of the Match is Axar Patel with his career-best T20I figures of 3 for 9:
India captain Rohit Sharma is named Player of the Series for his 159 runs: "It's important to start well whenever I've batted. That's always been my mindset, to give the team a good start. Once you see the pitch and know the conditions, you know what you need to do as a batter. It was coming on to the bat nice in the Powerplay so you want to get a good start and carry on. We had a plan. We could have done better in the middle overs but I was happy with the way the lower order finished. Harshal did well the last two games, and the spinners did the job for us in the entire series. Ashwin, Axar, and then Chahal bowling after a long period of time did well. Venkatesh bowling those overs with the skill he has can be useful going forward. If you see the teams going around the world, they bat very deep. Number 8 and 9 can play a big role. Harshal when he plays for Haryana, he opens the batting for them so he's a good batter. Deepak, we saw what he did in Sri Lanka. I've grown up playing on cement and concrete pitches back in the day and once I started opening the batting, that changed my approach. Picking the length, I wouldn't say it comes naturally but I've practiced a lot playing those shots [to the short ball] but I've gotten out to that shot many times also. When you have a strength, you have to play to it and not worry about getting out and express yourself. Playing the short pitched ball is one of my strengths so I just try to play to that and get the maximum result."
That's it from the presentation. And that's all from today for me and Shashank Kishore. On behalf of the scoring team, I'm Peter Della Penna. The T20Is are over, but stay tuned for the Tests to follow beginning on Wednesday in Kanpur! Take care!
10.31 pm Well India's struggles at the T20 World Cup seem like they happened in an alternate universe based on how dominant they performed today to close out a 3-0 sweep. New Zealand are missing a few key players from their T20 World Cup run to the final but still this has been very impressive from the hosts.
Venkatesh Iyer: "I think that's what I'm in the team for, batting and bowling so it's good to get a bowl finally. I think everyone aspires to play for the country so when you win it's a great feeling. I've always maintained that as a professional cricketer, you have to be flexible as to where you will bat."
Yuzvendra Chahal: "After two overs, I realized my drift was taking the ball to the leg side so I tried to move the ball from off stump to fourth stump because the ball was gripping. I was working on my googlies and my topspinners and bowling more of them which is helping me to confuse the batsmen so I'm pretty happy with that."
Harshal Patel: "My skillset is not gonna change overnight and I've had success doing the things I do well. I tried to do the things that have made me successful in the IPL at international level as well. Execution is a big part of the slower ball delivery because if you get it wrong, more often than not it'll sail over the boundary, even with lower order batters. You have to keep backing yourself. If you're not feeling confident, I can go back into the nets to work on it but it's a delivery I bank on."
Ishan Kishan: "Boult got me out in the World Cup with the same ball so I was expecting the same ball on my pads and hit it. The coach and captain asked me to do the simple thing, whatever I've done in the IPL. I just watch the ball and like to hit the ball hard. The coach said go play your shots and if you get out it's okay."
India head coach Rahul Dravid: "I think it was a really good series win. Everyone played well right through the series. It's nice to start well but we are realistic and we need to keep our feet on the ground. It's not easy for New Zealand to show up after a World Cup final and play three games in six days. We have to keep our feet on the ground and learn some things on the way forward. It's been really good to see some of the younger guys come through. We gave opportunities to some guys who haven't played a lot of cricket in the last few months with some more experienced guys taking a break. We've seen some good learnings and going forward we need to keep developing those skills going forward. It's really great to see that we've got options and can mix and match. It's going to be a long season between now and the next World Cup being realistic with how much cricket some of our experienced players will play. There's only three or four guys from here going on to Kanpur for the Tests and will need to be up at 7:30 am, so maybe the other guys will be able to have a late night and enjoy themselves."
LH Ferguson c & b Chahar 14 (11m 8b 0x4 2x6) SR: 175.00
"Going forward, we will definitely keep an eye out for him," India's T20 captain says of Venkatesh Iyer
India's coach also suggested that the team might continue to rest and rotate players over the coming 12 months
Both are in Kolkata for the third T20I against New Zealand and will leave with the squad on November 23
New Zealand, at no stage, showed any semblance of a fight. Not even when Guptill shellacked a breezy half-century.
While this series may have been shoe-horned into an already packed calendar, it means a great deal to new players coming through