New Zealand vs India, 4th T20, Hamilton: 3 standout players from the matchÂ
New Zealand hosted India at the Sky Stadium in Wellington for the 4th T20 in the five-match series. The visitors had already won the series and Virat Kohli decided to rest Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja. The Kiwis won the toss and elected to bowl first, on a pitch that looked good for batting.
India had a good start, in terms of the run rate but they were losing wickets at regular intervals which left them in a spot of bother. In the 12th over, India were six down for 88. Then came a partnership between Manish Pandey and Shardul Thakur that saw the visitors score a good enough total of 165 for the loss of 8 wickets.
Chasing a par score, New Zealand started really well as after 12 overs, the Kiwis had just lost 2 wickets for 97 runs. But then came another downfall for the visitors as they managed to draw a game that they should have won quite easily. The Kiwis needed just 7 runs from the last 6 balls but they fell short by 1 run, which took us into another super over.
New Zealand managed 13 runs from their six balls and the score was chased down by India with two balls to spare. Here, we are going to take a look at the three standout players from the game.
#3 Manish Pandey
When India were almost down and out in the first innings, it was Manish Pandey's brilliant batting that powered India to a good enough score. He scored 50 runs from just 36 balls, with only three fours, which just goes on to show the maturity with which Pandey played on the day.
He knew he had to stay on the crease as long as possible and he did exactly that. Pandey was very busy on the pitch and he made sure that the Indian bowlers had a good total to defend. This was another showcase of how good Pandey really is as a finisher.
#2 Colin Munro
Colin Munro was by far New Zealand's best performer and the reason for that is - 166 can be a tricky chase as one doesn't know whether to go hard from the start or take the slow route. Munro played his natural game, took the game to the Indian bowling unit and made life easier for his middle order.
Munro scored a brilliant 64 from 47 balls, with six fours and three sixes. Unfortunately, the middle order couldn't finish the game off and Munro's brilliant innings came in a losing cause but nothing can be taken away from his hard-hitting.
#1 Shardul Thakur
Every series, for India, there has been someone new who has emerged as a match-winner and on Friday, we saw Shardul Thakur come off age and deliver a man of the match performance. Not only with the ball in hand, but also with the bat as he gave some much-needed support to Manish Pandey.
Thakur scored 20 runs from 15 balls and along with that, he gave away 33 runs from his four overs, picking up two wickets. The Mumbai seamer bowled the last over for India and thanks to his brilliant knuckleballs, India were able to draw the scores, which took the game into super over. Last match, the one who did that was Mohammed Shami and today, it was Thakur.