New Zealand Vs India 2020: 3rd T20I, Hamilton - Twitter Reactions 1
Image Credit: ICC Twitter

The visiting team India secured the T20I series against the hosts New Zealand after winning the Hamilton thriller on Wednesday (29th January). After they had the tie result in that game, India won the one-over eliminator.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson decided to field first after winning the toss. The hosts restricted the visitors to 179/5 (20 overs) in the first innings. In reply, New Zealand also scored 179/6 (20 overs).

In the Super Over, the hosts scored 17/0 (Kane Williamson 11, Martin Guptill 5) and India chased down that target on the final ball (20/0) after Rohit Sharma finished that with a sixer.

Indian openers provided a solid start

During the main game, Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma got the very good start as they scored 69 runs in the mandatory powerplay (0.1-5.6 overs). Rohit Sharma completed his half-century in that powerplay as he took 23 balls to reach that score.

India, New Zealand, twitter reactions
Rohit Sharma (Image Credit: ICC Twitter)

After putting the 89 runs partnership for the opening wicket, in-form Rahul lost his wicket on 27 runs in the ninth over of that innings. Soon after that, Rohit was dismissed on 65 runs off 40 balls (6 fours and 3 sixes) while Shivam Dube (3) failed to utilise his batting promotion to no.3 position.

Indian batsmen struggled in that middle-stage while captain Virat Kohli tried hard to handle that situation with the middle-order batsmen. Kohli and Shreyas Iyer put the 46 runs partnership for the fourth wicket before Iyer was stumped out on 17 runs.

Indian skipper Kohli was dismissed on 19th over after scoring crucial 38 runs off 27 balls. Manish Pandey scored 14 not out off six balls, and Ravindra Jadeja was unbeaten on ten runs (5 balls).

The right-arm pacer Hamish Bennett took three wickets in that innings, but he was also very expensive. He finished with the bowling figures of 4-0-54-3.

Kane Williamson just missed becoming a hero

The hosts’ openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro set the 47 runs partnership for the first wicket. But after their quick dismissals (Guptill 31 and Munro 14), New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson handled the situation brilliantly and almost guided them to the crucial victory.

India, New Zealand, twitter reactions
Kane Williamson (Image Credit: ICC Twitter)

Though the next batsmen (Mitchell Santner 9 and Colin de Grandhomme 5) fell cheaply, Williamson played the superb knock of 95 runs off 48 balls (8 fours and 6 sixes). In the final over of that regular match, New Zealand needed to score nine runs, and Ross Taylor smashed a sixer on the first ball of that over. However, they still failed to secure a victory as Mohammed Shami dismissed Williamson (95 runs) and Taylor (17 runs) and the hosts only managed to tie that game.

Earlier in this five-match T20I series, India already won the first two matches. After winning this latest T20I, India have taken the unassailable 3-0 lead in this series with two to go.

Here are the Twitter reactions of this Hamilton T20I between New Zealand and India

https://twitter.com/batsha1999/status/1222474590410010624?s=20

https://twitter.com/Actor_Siddharth/status/1222473587937837056?s=20