It is the third consecutive victory for captain Rohit Sharma and his team. For the third time in a row, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first on the flat pitch of Eden Garden in Kolkata. Rohit and his opening partner Ishan Kishan got the hosts off to a flying start, throwing caution to the breeze and unleashing a brutal onslaught on New Zealand's pace attack.
Rohit blasted three tremendous sixes in the powerplay and the last of which brought him to 150 sixes in T20 internationals.
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Yesterday’s match was special for one more player – Yuzvendra Chahal, who played his 50th T20I match. Besides Yuzi, other Indian cricketers who have played 50 or more T20 matches are:- Indians who have played 50 or more T20Is: Rohit Sharma – 119*, MS Dhoni – 98, Virat Kohli – 95, Suresh Raina – 78, Shikhar Dhawan – 68, Yuvraj Singh – 58, KL Rahul – 56, Bhuvneshwar Kumar - 55*, Ravindra Jadeja – 55, Hardik Pandya – 54, and Ravichandran Ashwin – 51.
Team India gave a target of 184/7 in 20 overs and New Zealand needed 185 for the win. But the team failed to chase the runs because of the early wickets, Mitchell got dismissed by Axar Patel in the 3rd over of the second innings and new batter Chapman got out on zero in the same over.
Kiwis were back to the pavilion in the 17th over and India won the match by 73 runs! This is India's biggest victory over New Zealand (by runs).
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Playing XI:
New Zealand Playing XI
Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), James Neesham, Mitchell Santner(c), Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult
India Playing XI
Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal