India vs New Zealand 2017, 3rd T20I: Hits and Misses
The decider of the ODI series between India and New Zealand proved to be a thriller of a game where the hosts beat the Kiwis by a narrow margin of 6 runs. The third and final game of the T20 series went along the same lines and entertained the audience with a nail-biting finish to the run-curtailed encounter.
India scored a total of 67/5 in the eight-over innings after being put in to bat by New Zealand. It seemed like a meager target midway through the match and it seemed like the visitors will pull off a massive upset by winning the match and thus, clinching the series this time around.
However, the Indian bowling unit put up a sensational performance to snatch the game away from New Zealand's hands to write their names all over it.
Here are the hits and misses from India's first international game hosted in Thiruvananthapuram:
#6 Hit: Mitchell Santner
Very rarely does a cricketer make the headlines with his fielding in a game. Even rarely does he manage it in a rain-curtailed one. Mitchell Santner did just that on Tuesday.
His spell of two overs, which wasn’t bad at all, still did not make for best performance of the match. It was his electrifying fielding that took everyone’s (read: India’s) breath away and sucked the life out of the batting line-up of the hosts.
In the third over of the game, Tim Southee sent both the Indian openers back to the pavilion. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were dismissed while trying to hit the pacer out of the park and both of them were caught by Santner in the field.
He overran for the first catch but managed to backtrack to perfection to take the swirling ball in his safe pair of hands at the edge of the circle. His next catch to dismiss Sharma was even better, where he dove forward at fine leg to showcase his athleticism on the field.
However, his moment of the match came in the last over of the first innings, when he produced magic at the long-on boundary to send Manish Pandey back to the hut. The ball was hit well, but Santner threw himself to his right and flicked the ball to Colin de Grandhomme to produce the best fielding effort of the entire tour.
As a bowler, he did his job. As a fielder, he went far beyond.