India vs New Zealand, 3rd T20I - Talking Points and Who Said What?

Mitchell Santner's New Zealand suffered one of their worst defeats in the shortest format of the game after India pumped them for a 168-run victory in the series decider in Ahmedabad. The victory means that India extend their unbeaten streak at home in bilateral series.

As India registered another bilateral series victory, let us look at the talking points from the series finale before listening to the comments of the two skippers.

Having a time of his life

2023 is just a month old, but India's star opening batter Shubman Gill has already left a mark with his scintillating batting displays. The 23-year-old eye-catching shot maker set the record books straight after a sizzling 126* in front of a full house Ahmedabad crowd. He became only the fifth Indian batter to breach the three-figure mark in all forms of the game on his way to the highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is.

A homecoming for the ages

Gujarat Titans' skipper Hardik Pandya, who led the Indian team in the T20I series, endured a memorable return to his home state. The mercurial all-rounder contributed with a scintillating cameo with the bat in the first innings and followed up with a fabulous bowling spell, finishing with 4/16 in his four overs.

One of those days for the Kiwis

A visiting team on the receiving end of an absolute hammering from the Indian team has become a theme of late. However, the Kiwis were more than up for it in the opening two matches and came into the series decider with hopes of a historic series victory. But it wasn't to be as their batters fell well short of the target, failing to even play out their full quota of overs. Full marks to Mitchell Santner and his team for giving it a right go in the first two games, but it wasn't to be for the visitors in the series decider.

Winning skipper and Player of the Series Hardik Pandya said:

I don't mind winning (Player of the Series award), but there were so performances here that were exceptional. This Man of the Series and trophy goes out to the whole support staff, I'm happy for all of them. (On doing things out of the box) Not to be honest, I always play the game like this. I try to read what is required, not have preconceived ideas. In my captaincy, I look to keep it simple and back my gut. I have a simple rule - if I go down, I will go down on my terms. We've spoken about taking challenges. When we played the IPL final, we felt the second innings was more spicy but on this surface today I wanted to make it a normal game because it was a decider. Hence, we batted first. Hopefully, we can continue performing like this.

Losing skipper Mitchell Santner said:

It was disappointing. It would be nice to take the trophy but credit to India, they played outstanding. Some of their guys are in great nick at the moment. It is tough to win when you lose five in the powerplay. It can be challenging when the ball is swinging. If you look at the way India played, they took their time early on and when it got flat, they really had a go at us. (On the World Cup later this year) I guess that time of the year there will be some dew around, most teams might bowl first. We've seen some great wickets, if it is like that in October it will be a great World Cup to be part of and to learn. I think 320 would be the score we'd want to restrict teams to then.

Player of the Match Shubman Gill said:

It feels good when you practice and it pays off. I was backing myself to score big. Didn't happen in the Sri Lanka series, but happy to see it work out now. Everybody has a different technique to hit sixes. Hardik bhai told me to play my game, not do anything extra and he kept backing me. When you represent your country, there is no fatigue. It was my dream to play for India, and I am very fortunate to be part of the team in all three formats.

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