India captain Rohit Sharma said his team will return home with lots of positives. India started well with the ODIs; throughout the tour, the men-in-blue were excellent but faced a “disappointing” 1-2 defeat in the three-match T20 series.
A first ever T20 series win would have been an icing on the cake but New Zealand held their nerves to pull off a thrilling four-run victory on Sunday.
“Disappointing to not cross the line but we fought well right till the end. 210 odd (213 target) was always going to be tough, but we were in it till the end. They held their nerve and kept hitting their yorkers,” said Rohit at the post-match presentation.
“Still lot of positives, we started well with the ODIs, wanted to do well here but the boys throughout the tour were excellent, put in a lot of hard work. They will be disappointed tonight but we’ve to learn from the mistakes we made and move ahead.”
India next host Australia for two T20s and five ODIs, starting in Vizag on February 24.
“Brilliant high-scoring game, a great advertisement for T20 cricket. The first performance was our best, there were learnings in the second game. Both teams put in strong performances tonight, we did slightly better,” said Williamson.
Opener and man of the match Colin Munro said it was anybody’s game with India needing 16 off the final over.
“It was touch and go there until the final minute. India - you get one good batsman, another one comes along. The boys did a really good job of finishing off the really good Indian batsmen,” said Munro.
On his 72 off 40 balls, he added: “I didn’t really focus on trying to do anything different, tried to put pressure back on the bowlers. Just came out nice and free, had a bit of luck, which you certainly need in this match.”
Brief scores: New Zealand: 212/4 (Colin Munro 72, Tim Seifert 43; Kuldeep Yadav 2/26) against India: 208/7 (Vijay Shankar 43, Rohit Sharma 38; Mitchell Santner 2/32, Daryl Mitchell
(With PTI Inputs)