India and New Zealand locked horns in the third T20I in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens and the host came up with a dominating performance with a 73-run win. India had already bagged the series by 2-0 and they were 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.
WATCH – Deepak Chahar Smashes 19 Runs In Final Over, Rohit Sharma Gives Salute
Stand-in captain Mitchell Santner came to bowl just after the powerplay and changed the course of the match. 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.
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.
WATCH – Ishan Kishan Pulls Off Two Run-out With Brilliant Throw From The Outfield
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. They never managed to get back into the game with wickets kept on falling at regular intervals and the Kiwis eventually got bundled out for a meager score of 111 with Deepak Chahar taking the last wicket as the Indian team completed the series whitewash and a 73-run win.
While Axar Patel got the player of the match award for his spell of 3/9, Rohit Sharma bagged the player of the series award for scored 159 runs.
Here is how the fans reacted to India win:
Eden Gardens never disappoints @ImRo45, another sensational innings by the captain along with some great captaincy. The bowling & fielding have been exceptional. Beating a team like @BLACKCAPS in this format by 3-0 is never easy! Excellent show. Well done #TeamIndia 🇮🇳
#INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/dl964Ug9rz
— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) November 21, 2021
3-0 Perfect start from captain Rohit Sharma as well as coach Rahul Dravid. Well done team India. Today’s victory must be most satisfactory! #INDVsNZT20
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) November 21, 2021
3-0 against T20 World Cup finalist just is a fine start for #RohitSharma and #RahulDravid. Both believe in backing young talents and some good options for future have shown potential in this #INDVsNZT20
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) November 21, 2021
Well played Team India 👏🏼 #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/n2qbLQEuu4
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) November 21, 2021
Toss is overrated 🙈🤪
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 21, 2021
Clean sweep complete 💪
India skittle New Zealand out for 111 and win the final T20I by 73 runs to take the series 3-0.#INDvNZ | https://t.co/ZzuqcIe2Ih pic.twitter.com/KJMmGe2G1D
— ICC (@ICC) November 21, 2021
First series win for this duo #RahulDravid #RohitSharma dominated in all the departments. Congratulations #TeamIndia Champions stuff. #INDVsNZT20 @BCCI
— Vinay Kumar R (@Vinay_Kumar_R) November 21, 2021
Thumping win for India. New Zealand didn’t even get close. Could be hugely demoralising for the visiting team before the Test series. Congrats #RohitSharma and #RahulDravid for a fantastic winning start
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 21, 2021
That's that from the Eden Gardens as #TeamIndia win by 73 runs and clinch the series 3-0.
Scorecard – https://t.co/MTGHRx2llF #INDvNZ @Paytm pic.twitter.com/TwN622SPAz
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 21, 2021
#TeamIndia wrap things up perfectly at the Eden Gardens! 🤩
Seal the T20I series 3️⃣-0️⃣
📷 BCCI #INDvNZ #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/moxcmsrEgf
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) November 21, 2021
Clean sweep ✅#TeamIndia complete an emphatic win at Eden Gardens with a superb bowling performance 🙌#INDvNZ #OrangeArmy pic.twitter.com/ayhPgj0DUY
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) November 21, 2021
This series..
– Rohit Sharma 159 runs in 103 balls, 10 sixes, 11 fours
– Martin Guptill 152 runs in 93 balls, 10 sixes, 10 fours#INDVsNZT20 #INDvNZ #INDvsNZ— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) November 21, 2021
The Rohit-Rahul era starts off with a clean sweep over 🇳🇿 😎
Drop a ❤️ if you enjoyed the performance of this 🆕 look Indian team. #INDvNZ #SaddaPunjab #PunjabKings pic.twitter.com/H8fWUReSJF
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) November 21, 2021
India's night in Kolkata. Congratulations to Rohit Sharma and his team. The Test series starts on Thursday in Kanpur. Scorecard | https://t.co/mZ8BkeO5Ob #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/6dGh0i8x6V
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) November 21, 2021