India and New Zealand are locking horns in the third T20I in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. India has already bagged the series by 2-0 and they are looking to complete a white-wash. Rohit Sharma won yet another toss and opted to bat first. Mitchell Santner is captaining New Zealand as Tim Southee is rested and is replaced by Adam Milne. India, on the other hand, rested KL Rahul and Ravichandran Ashwin while bringing Ishan Kishan and Yuzvendra Chahal in.
Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma walked out to open the innings and gave India a blazing start. Both openers were hitting boundaries for fun and punished every New Zealand bowler. They scored 69 runs inside the powerplay without losing any wicket. Stand-in captain Mitchell Santner came to bowl just after the powerplay and changed the course of the match.
WATCH – Deepak Chahar Smashes 19 Runs In Final Over, Rohit Sharma Gives Salute
Santner dismissed Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar in one over before dismissing Rishabh Pant in his next over to reduce India from 69/0 to 83/3 in no time. Rohit Sharma was looking good and had scored a fifty but Ish Sodhi plucked a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss him for 56.
Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer played handy cameos but both got out within three balls. Harshal Patel was looking good before getting hit-wicket out to Lockie Ferguson. Deepak Chahar came out to bat and shifted the momentum towards India with his late blitz. Rohit Sharma gave a salute when Deepak Chahar returned after batting as his late blitz took India’s score to 184/7 in 20 overs.
WATCH – Axar Patel Breaks The Backbone Of Kiwis With 3 Quick Wickets
During the chase, New Zeland started off well by scoring 20 runs in the first two overs itself but, they lost the plot after that as Axar Patel dismissed Daryl Mitchell and Mark Chapman in the third over and conceded just 22 runs. Axar Patel came out to bowl the 5th over and he didn’t disappoint and he dismissed Glenn Phillips as well, who went for a reverse sweep. Eventually, they were down to 76/5 in 12 overs.
The Kiwis suffered further blow with the run-outs owing to the brilliant thrown from Ishan Kishan. After the run-outs, the Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid was seen patting the Indian fielding coach. Here are the videos of the dismissals:
https://twitter.com/pant_fc/status/1462650685959204865?t=3qCy5WIxhYIRrHiC1_ntBA&s=19
IND vs NZ 2021, 3RD T20I : Tim Seifert Wicket https://t.co/oZLIj0Y0Xp
— Cricket Videos (@CricketVideos15) November 21, 2021
IND vs NZ 2021, 3RD T20I : Mitchell Santner Wicket https://t.co/u3t6SwbXRv
— Cricket Videos (@CricketVideos15) November 21, 2021
