Team India closed out the series with New Zealand with a resounding 4-1 triumph on the back of a 45-run win over the Kiwis at Greenfield Stadium on Saturday, as the men in blue posted a total of 271 runs and limited the tourists to 225 in 19.4 overs.
Ishan Kishan’s ton powered India to the mammoth total, while skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch in the series, added 63 runs off just 30 deliveries in the final game.
The fifth and final game of the series witnessed 496 runs being score by both teams in total and Suryakumar shed light on how challenging the shortest format of the game is on bowlers.
Arshdeep Singh starred with the ball for the men in blue in their defence as the southpaw seamer secured a five-wicket
haul, despite going for 51 runs, to help the hosts round out the series.
Kiwi opener Finn Allen smashed 80 runs off just 30 deliveries, while Rachin Ravindra and Ish Sodhi came up with sizeable cotributions in the NZ chase, which ultimately paled in contrast to the Indian batting prowess.
“This format is really hard on bowlers – I completely understand that,” Suryakumar said following the win.
“When you score big runs, you have to expect the opposition to come hard at you.”
“As a captain and as a bowling unit, you’re always under pressure. The key is having good plans,” he expalined.
“It’s all part of the learning process. We’ll sit down, talk it through, and move forward.”
Axar Patel was the pick of the spinners with his three-fer, while Varun Chakravarthy and Rinku Singh scalped a wicket each in the memorable win.
Suryakumar will look to help the Men in Blue defend the T20 World Cup title in the showpiece event slated to be held in India and Sri Lanka next month.
