Ahmedabad: Hardik Pandya’s fantastic bowling helped India beat New Zealand to clinch the T20I series.
Chasing the Himalayan target of 235 runs, New Zealand’s top-order batsmen did not play well. Three of the first four bowlers were in single-digit runs, with Mark Chapman getting out for zero. Hardik Pandya, who has Ahmedabad pitch as his home pitch in the IPL series, bowled the first over in this match.
He also seeded the downfall of the New Zealand team. After dismissing Allan in the first over, he struck out Glenn Phillips in his next over. He was followed by Arshadeep Singh, Umran Malik and Shivam Mavi with two wickets each. As a result, the New Zealand team lost eight wickets before 10 overs. Daryl Mitchell was the only consolation in the team and added 35 runs. In the end, New Zealand lost all wickets for 66 runs in 12.1 overs.
Hardik Pandya took the maximum 4 wickets for the Indian team who won by 168 runs.
Indian innings: India won the toss and elected to bat. Gill and Ishan Kishan were the openers for India. Kishan lost his wicket after scoring 1 run. Gill then put on a partnership of 80 runs with Tripathi. Rahul Tripathi scored 44 runs off 22 balls. Suryakumar Yadav was then dismissed for 24 runs off 13 balls.
Gill put on a 103-run partnership with captain Hardik Pandya. Gill scored a century off 54 balls. At the other end, Pandya scored 30 runs off 17 balls. Gill, who did not lose his wicket till the end, scored 126 runs in 63 balls. He hit 12 fours and 7 sixes. At the end of 20 overs, the Indian cricket team scored 234 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. Now New Zealand is chasing the target of 235 runs to win.
New Zealand cricket team is touring India and playing cricket series. Both the teams have now won the 3rd and final T20I of the three-match T20 series to clinch the series. It is noteworthy that he has already won the ODI series.
