New Zealand vs India, 1st T20I: How the players performed
After winning the ODI series by a convincing margin of 4-1, a confident Indian team took on New Zealand in the 1st T20I of the 3-match T20 series at Wellington.
India's skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first on a flat batting pitch. However, Rohit's decision to bowl first backfired as New Zealand batsmen smashed Indian bowlers all over the park to post a huge score of 219/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing a tough score of 220, the Indian team was never in the chase as they lost wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for just 139 runs in 19.2 overs to lose the match by a huge margin of 80 runs, thereby handing the Kiwis a 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series.
With the match done and dusted, let's see how the players from both the sides fared in this one-sided encounter:
New Zealand
Tim Seifert- 9/10
The unknown wicket-keeper batsman played a superb innings of 84 runs from 43 balls by smashing 7 fours and 6 sixes to lay the foundation for New Zealand's huge score. Seifert also had a brilliant day behind the stumps as he took 2 catches.
Colin Munro- 6.5/10
After struggling for runs in the ODI series, Colin Munro was back to his best in his most preferred format and scored a quickfire 34 runs off 20 balls. He also added 84 runs for the opening wicket with Tim Seifert before being dismissed by Krunal Pandya.
Kane Williamson- 6.5/10
The New Zealand skipper also bounced back from a poor ODI series by scoring a quickfire 34 runs off 22 balls and was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 16th over.
Daryl Mitchell- 6/10
Promoted to bat ahead of Ross Taylor, the 27-year-old scored 8 runs off 6 balls before being undone by a brilliant catch from Dinesh Karthik at deep long-on boundary. However, Daryl Mitchell had a good day in the field as he picked up a wicket in his 2.2 overs and conceded just 13 runs.
Ross Taylor- 6.5/10
Having been New Zealand's best batsman in the recently-concluded ODI series, Ross Taylor continued his superb form with the bat and scored a quickfire 23 runs off 14 balls before being dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the fag end of New Zealand innings.
Colin De Grandhomme- 1/10
The all-rounder could not do much in today's match as he was dismissed for just 3 runs, courtesy of a fine catch by substitute fielder Mohammed Siraj off Hardik Pandya's bowling.
Mitchell Santner- 6/10
Santner had a brilliant day with the ball as he picked up 2 wickets in one over to derail India's chase.
Scott Kuggeleijn- 5/10
Kuggeleijn provided finishing touches to the New Zealand innings with a quickfire unbeaten 20 runs off just 7 balls. However, Kuggeleijn did not have a good day with the ball as he was the only Kiwi bowler who looked completely off-color and conceded 34 runs in just 2 overs.
Tim Southee- 8/10
After being benched in the just-concluded ODI series, the experienced Tim Southee showed why he is still one of the best New Zealand bowlers around with a brilliant spell of 4-0-17-3.
Ish Sodhi- 6/10
Like all the New Zealand bowlers, leg spinner Ish Sodhi also had a good match as he picked up 2 wickets in his 3-over spell.
Lockie Ferguson- 7.5/10
Ferguson troubled the Indian batsmen with his quick and lightning pace in his 4 overs and picked up 2 wickets including the crucial wicket of Shikhar Dhawan.