Tim Seifert, Glenn Phillips and Adam Milne set up New Zealand win as India take T20I series 3-2

Tim Seifert, Glenn Phillips and Adam Milne set up a seven-wicket win for New Zealand over India in the fifth T20I in Hamilton on Sunday, ESPNcricinfo reported. India still took the five-match series 3-2 after falling behind 3-0. Sportstar said the match was played on Sunday in Hamilton.

New Zealand consolation win in Hamilton

New Zealand secured another consolation win after having fallen behind 3-0 in the five-match series. New Zealand 195 for 3 (Seifert 93, Phillips 65*) beat India 191 for 8 (Kishan 61, Iyer 50, Milne 4-19) by seven wickets.

The tall New Zealand quicks restricted India to 191, and Tim Seifert's return to runs led their chase to give the hosts another consolation win after having fallen behind 3-0 in the five-match series.

New Zealand continued to be generous in the field, dropping two catches and taking a wicket off a no-ball, but it was the one dropped chance by India this time that proved to be crucial.

Seifert would have been out for 13 off 15 had Naman Dhir, a beneficiary of dropped catches himself, taken the sitter in the fourth over.

Seifert and Phillips power chase

What followed was carnage from both ends as Seifert ended with 93 off 50 and Glenn Phillips added another half-century to aggregate the most runs for anyone in a bilateral series, 341.

India didn't quite have the bowling resources ideal for the conditions in Hamilton, and the pitch also settled down in the night.

New Zealand’s Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips stitched together an 86-run partnership to cruise to the target in 18 overs during the 5th T20I against India.

The opener (93, 50b, 11x4, 5x6) shared an 86-run partnership with in-form Glenn Phillips (65 not out, 38b) for the third wicket as the hosts replied with 195 for three to India’s 191 for eight, which was constructed around fifties from Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.

New Zealand’s chase had a shaky start to it, losing Finn Allen early to Arshdeep Singh, but Seifert added 73 runs for the second wicket with Daryl Mitchell (29, 16b).

Mitchell did the bulk of the scoring, hammering pacer Prince Yadav for two sixes in succession, and then eked out another maximum off Varun Chakravarthy, who was playing his first match of the rubber.

However, Mitchell eventually fell to Chakravarthy as Abhishek Sharma took a fine catch near long-on.

But Seifert, who recovered well from a slow start (14 off 15 balls), picked up the pace at the right time, putting an end to a string of low scores in this series.

Once the power and timing returned to his game, the 31-year-old was a different beast, bringing up his fifty in 34 balls. He made the Indians pay dearly for the drop on 13, as Naman Dhir grassed a sitter near the ropes off Arshdeep.

Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was carted around for 4, 6, 6, 4, and the first six measured 108 metres, the biggest hit of the match. The 13th over bowled by Chakravarthy yielded 18 runs as Seifert and Phillips tore into the mystery spinner.

Just as Seifert closed in on a maiden T20 hundred, an unfortunate inner edge off Nitish Kumar Reddy ended his stay. But Phillips, who fetched his fifty in just 29 balls, ensured that Seifert’s effort did not go in vain.

India innings and series result

Earlier, skipper Iyer and Kishan rediscovered their form with well-paced fifties, but pacer Adam Milne-led New Zealand managed to keep India down to a below-par total.

India went through three contrasting phases in its innings — an early stutter, a middle-over acceleration, and then a rather lukewarm finish.

Iyer (50, 23b) and Kishan (61, 32b) shared an alliance of 107 runs in little more than seven overs as India enjoyed a productive middle segment. There was a bit of purchase for pacers on the track, but Iyer and Kishan were hardly bothered.

Kishan was a bit slow off the block, making just 13 runs off 11 balls, but there was no looking back once he got his eye in.

The transformation came along with a boundary to the long-off off pacer Nathan Smith and a cut six over point off Blair Tickner.

At the other end, Shreyas, who could not get a big score after registering his maiden T20 hundred against the West Indies last month, had no such teething issues. The Mumbai man started off with a flicked six off Smith, and high-calibre shots flowed.

Amid dropped catches and no-balls, though, Nathan Smith and Blair Tickner kept getting wickets before Adam Milne finished with two wickets at the death to go with the scalps of the openers in the powerplay.

India secured the series 3-2 despite losing the final match, ESPNcricinfo reported. New Zealand recorded a consolation win after trailing 3-0 in the five-match series. Glenn Phillips aggregated the most runs for anyone in a bilateral series, with 341 runs, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Final T20I scorecard summary

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Sources

• ESPNcricinfo

• Sportstar

• Photo: Stwcar, Pixabay Content License (Pixabay)