STATE TIMES NEWS
Thiruvananthapuram: Ishan Kishan’s thrill-a-second maiden T20I hundred compensated for Sanju Samson’s familiar failure, and the knock in conjunction with Arshdeep Singh’s fifer scripted India’s 46-run romp over New Zealand in the fifth and final match here on Saturday.
India thus sealed the series 4-1, and wrapped up their preparations to defend the T20 World Cup title on a highly satisfactory note.
Once India made a humongous 271 for five, riding on Kishan’s (103, 43 balls, 6×4, 10×6) and skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s (63, 30b, 4×4, 6×6), only the margin of victory was needed to be known.
The Kiwis fought gamely in pockets, but eventually finished with 225 all out. For India, pacer Arshdeep regrouped from his early travails to take a delightful five-wicket haul (5/51).
He had conceded 40 runs in his first two overs for the wicket of Tim Seifert, but then took four wickets in the next three overs for a mere 11 runs.
Fin Allen (80, 38b) played a powerful innings upfront but the target was always outside the Kiwis’ grasp.
Allen, the top-scorer in the recently concluded Big Bash League, carried that form to the Greenfield Stadium.
The right-hander put pacer Arshdeep through the shredder, collecting two fours and a six in the opening over of the Kiwis’ innings.
Soon, Allen clubbed the Indian pacer for 4, 4, 6, 4, 4 in his second over to make 23 runs in total.
Allen, who reached his sixth T20I fifty in 22 balls, fell to returning left-arm spinner Axar Patel (3/33), ending a second wicket alliance of 100 runs with Rachin Ravindra (30, 17b).
In fact, both the spinners — Axar and Varun Chakravarthy (1/36) — did a commendable job in reining in New Zealand after the Power Play.
There was no real life in New Zealand’s chase once Allen went back with wickets falling at regular intervals.
Samson fails again but none entertained a full weekend house more than Kishan on a sultry evening, who came in after the early departures of Samson and Abhishek Sharma.
Opener Samson (6), whose fifth successive failure in this series now casts a huge shadow over his T20 World Cup prospects could not get going, falling to pacer Lockie Ferguson.
If he needed a more ominous sign then Kishan later kept the wickets too, giving a hint to the Indian team management’s thinking ahead of ICC showpiece, starting in a week’s time.