India vs New Zealand 2017, 3rd T20I: Hits and Misses

The decider of the ODI series between India and New Zealand proved to be a thriller of a game where the hosts beat the Kiwis by a narrow margin of 6 runs. The third and final game of the T20 series went along the same lines and entertained the audience with a nail-biting finish to the run-curtailed encounter.

India scored a total of 67/5 in the eight-over innings after being put in to bat by New Zealand. It seemed like a meager target midway through the match and it seemed like the visitors will pull off a massive upset by winning the match and thus, clinching the series this time around.

However, the Indian bowling unit put up a sensational performance to snatch the game away from New Zealand's hands to write their names all over it.

Here are the hits and misses from India's first international game hosted in Thiruvananthapuram:

#6 Hit: Mitchell Santner

Very rarely does a cricketer make the headlines with his fielding in a game. Even rarely does he manage it in a rain-curtailed one. Mitchell Santner did just that on Tuesday.

His spell of two overs, which wasn’t bad at all, still did not make for best performance of the match. It was his electrifying fielding that took everyone’s (read: India’s) breath away and sucked the life out of the batting line-up of the hosts.

In the third over of the game, Tim Southee sent both the Indian openers back to the pavilion. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were dismissed while trying to hit the pacer out of the park and both of them were caught by Santner in the field.

He overran for the first catch but managed to backtrack to perfection to take the swirling ball in his safe pair of hands at the edge of the circle. His next catch to dismiss Sharma was even better, where he dove forward at fine leg to showcase his athleticism on the field.

However, his moment of the match came in the last over of the first innings, when he produced magic at the long-on boundary to send Manish Pandey back to the hut. The ball was hit well, but Santner threw himself to his right and flicked the ball to Colin de Grandhomme to produce the best fielding effort of the entire tour.

As a bowler, he did his job. As a fielder, he went far beyond.

#5 Miss: The Indian opening pair

India’s premier opening batsmen could not bring their best to their table with the bat when they were sent back to the pavilion with after scoring just 14 runs off 15 deliveries combined.

In a regular T20 game, this is a bad effort from your opening pair. However, in a T20 game that’s truncated to 8 overs a side, it puts your team smack in the middle of a crisis.

The left-hand and right-hand combination looked at its dangerous best in the first T20 of the series where both Sharma and Dhawan scored terrific half centuries. However, they failed in the next game and could not power India to a strong start even today.

It is the consistency from the pair that has made it one of the best opening duos in limited overs cricket. However, that very consistency is in threat right now. They need to bounce back as a pair very soon, considering the team will be traveling away from home for full-fledged tours of South Africa and England next year.

#4 Hit: Manish Pandey

Perennially sidelined in his career due to better talents like Kohli and Sharma who were born in the same era as him, Pandey always struggled to find his limelight in international cricket. Today, he ensured that he did his job with the bat, and did so with sincerity without any show of extravagance.

Off the 67 runs that India scored in their innings, 17 were scored from Pandey’s willow. He came in at the fall of the second wicket in the third over and was there until the final over of the innings. He added those 17 runs in just 11 deliveries, putting in an excellent shift today.

He was the highest scorer from both the sides and in a game that was dominated by the bowlers, he was the lone batsman who stood out from the outset. He was out of the shadow of Kohli and Sharma on this Tuesday night, and his contribution proved to be vital for India's victory in the game.

#3 Miss: Colin Munro

New Zealand’s star batsman from the second T20, Colin Munro, started this game right where he left off in the last. He hit a six off the first delivery that he faced in the innings and it looked like the visitors would run away with the chase.

However, Bumrah bowled a magnificent ball in the second over of the innings to dismiss the right-handed batsman. This was immediately after Kumar sent Guptill back to the pavilion in the previous over. A lot was expected of the pair of Munro and Guptill in this 8-over chase. These are batsmen who are considered to be tremendous power hitters. However, the Kiwi openers followed suit from the Indian openers and were dismissed for cheap scores almost as soon as they came out to the middle.

#2 Hit: The Yuzvendra Chahal-Jasprit Bumrah duo

Yuzvendra Chahal, who has been skipper Kohli’s wingman ever since he was drafted into the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for IPL 2014, proved his worth yet again in Thiruvananthapuram today.

In the high octane pressure bowling in a rain-truncated game, the youngster gave away just 8 runs in his two-over spell. He showed his master class through the twelve deliveries that he bowled and was not hit for a single boundary throughout the game.

Bowling in the IPL through the years has conditioned bowlers like Chahal to be well prepared for situations like this, and that showed clearly in his performance in the game. He kept fooling the Kiwi batsmen with the terrific turn and bounce that he extracted from the surface and bamboozled them with his intelligent bowling.

He might not have a wicket to his credit for this game, but he definitely was the best Indian bowler of the day.

Jasprit Bumrah, India’s specialist bowler in limited overs cricket, proved his reliability yet again and scalped two wickets in his two-over spell. The way he bowls in this format of the game just shows that India have struck gold with his sensational cricketer, who keeps performing at the highest of level every time the captain passes that cork ball to him.

#1 Miss: Kane Williamson

After the visitors lost their openers cheaply, the onus of taking New Zealand through the line fell on their skipper and best batsman, Kane Williamson. The right-handed batsman tried his best to make something of the game and steer his team to the relatively achievable total, but could only score 8 runs before falling to the magnificence of MS Dhoni behind the crease.

He was unfortunate to be run-out when he tried to take an extra run off a misfield in the 5th over of the innings. A flat incoming throw from Hardik Pandya and some lightning quick work by Dhoni to dislodge the bails dismissed the Kiwi captain.

His wicket turned things around for New Zealand and swung the momentum right into the Indian hut.