World No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma played a knock of an unbeaten 68 runs from just 20 balls for India in the third T20I against New Zealand, and captain Suryakumar Yadav scored 57 runs from 26 balls,
but both of them were ignored for the Player Of The Match award. Instead, the award for the best player of the third T20I between India and New Zealand was bagged by Jasprit Bumrah.
Bumrah, who replaced Arshdeep Singh in India’s playing XI for the third T20I on Sunday (January 25) against the Black Caps at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, picked up three wickets for 17 runs in his quota of four overs.
Bumrah opened his wicket account on Sunday by dismissing Tim Seifert on the first ball of his first over. Seifert, who was looking good, was clean bowled by the 32-year-old fast bowler from Ahmedabad.
Bumrah’s second wicket came in the 18th over of New Zealand’s innings. On the second ball, he breached Kyle Jamieson’s defence and shattered his stumps.
The legendary fast bowler bowled the final over of New Zealand’s innings, and on the first ball, he picked up New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner’s wicket. In an attempt to play a big shot off Bumrah’s bowling, Santner was caught by Abhishek Sharma. Before making his way back to the pavilion, Santner scored 27 runs from 17 balls and slammed 3 fours and 1 six.
For India, apart from Bumrah, spinner Ravi Bishnoi and all-rounder Hardik Pandya also picked up two wickets each. While Bishnoi got rid of Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman, who made 48 and 32 runs, respectively, Hardik removed Rachin Ravindra (4) and Daryl Mitchell (14).
Sanju out for a golden duck
In the match that India won by 8 wickets by chasing down the target of 154 runs in 10 overs, wicketkeeper Sanju Samson failed to open his account even. The Kerala-based cricketer opened the innings for the world’s No. 1 T20I team, but on the first ball itself, he got dismissed.
Matt Henry breached Samson’s defence on the first ball of India’s innings, and he got out for a golden duck.
The duck by Samson on Sunday is his seventh zero score in the 20-over format of the game for Team India. Only Rohit Sharma (12) is now ahead of him in the list of Indian batters with the most ducks in T20Is.
