The beginning of India tour of New Zealand was really good for the Indian team. The T20 International series was a huge success for it. Indian team whitewashed the New Zealand team in T20 International in New Zealand for the very first time in the history of cricket. This series was also very important for both the teams to find out their best combinations for the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 squad. The performance of Indian team was outstanding throughout the series; however, the New Zealand performance was not very much impressive and satisfying.
The first match of the series was played at Eden Park, Auckland, on January 24, Friday. The ground was small, and both the teams played very well in this match. In this match, Indian skipper won the toss and elected to field first. The New Zealand team scored very good runs in this match and gave a target of more than 200 runs, but Indian team too showed their best and fighting spirit and chased the target beautifully. Indian team won this match, and Shreyas Iyer was the player of the match in this match. This series was also very important because the T20 World Cup is close, and all teams want to find their best permutations and combinations and stabilize their squad. The Indian team was very positive in this series, and all the players were contributing towards the team victory.
The second game of the series was also at the same venue Eden Park, Auckland on the Indian republic day, and India also won this match and dominating over New Zealand. In this match, New Zealand scored 158 runs for 8 wickets, which India chased in 18.5 overs only where it scored 162 for 3 wickets.
The third and fourth match of the series was blockbuster matches. Both the matches got resulted in super over. Even 40 over of cricket was not enough for the results. The super over cricket was the key moment in this series. The super over of match 3 was absolutely thriller. New Zealand gave 18 runs target in super over to Indian team. It seemed very difficult for Indian team to win this match, but then Rohit Sharma showed his hitting class and hits 2 sixes in the last 2 balls and won the game for Indian team. The 2 sixes on last 2 balls by Rohit Sharma in super over was undoubtedly the moment of series. In Third match, both teams scored 179 runs, but India won it in super over.
For the 4th and 5th match of the series, Williamson got out of the team due to some injury, and Tim Southee took the captaincy of New Zealand team. The New Zealand team won the toss and decided to field first in 4th T20. On batting first Indian team collapsed early and only scored a total of 165 runs, but then also Indian bowlers performed well, and we saw 2nd super over match in this series as the host team also scored the same. India won the match and created a chance to whitewash New Zealand team.
Indian team also won the 5th match and whitewashed the New Zealand team for the very first time in the history of cricket in T20 Internationals. In this match, India scored 163 runs for 3 wickets while New Zealand scored only 156 runs for 9 wickets.
KL Rahul was selected as player of the series for scoring most runs in the series.
