ZCZC
BSP-05
CRICKET-NZL-IND-TOSS
India to bowl in T20 series decider against New Zealand
HAMILTON, New Zealand, Feb 10, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – India will bowl first in
the deciding Twenty20 against New Zealand in Hamilton on Sunday as they look
to round off their Australasian tour with another series victory.
The last time the two teams met in Hamilton saw New Zealand’s sole win in
the one-day international series.
But India captain Rohit Sharma, who won the toss, said they had put the
loss behind them and would defy the convention of batting first in a decider.
“We did not have a good result the last time we played here,” he said.
“When it’s a big game like a decider you always want to put runs on the
board but the combination we play with allows us to chase because we bat very
deep.”
India go into this match with the series locked at 1-1, after earlier
whipping New Zealand 4-1 in the one-day internationals.
It followed a 2-1 ODI series win in Australia and India’s first ever Test
series win in Australia.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, chasing a morale-boosting series win,
said his side would have preferred to bowl first as well.
“It is what it is. We would have had a bowl but it looks like a pretty good
surface so it’s important we do the job first up,” captain Kane Williamson
said.
Sharma, who has hit 102 sixes in T20 internationals, needs one more to
equal the record of 103 jointly held by the West Indies’ Chris Gayle and New
Zealand’s Martin Guptill.
New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Daryl
Mitchell, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Scott
Kuggeleijn, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Shankar, Rishabh Pant, MS
Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,
Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed
Umpires: Shaun Haig (NZL), Wayne Knights (NZL) TV umpire: Chris Brown (NZL)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
BSS/AFP/MSY/1300 hrs