India vice-captain Rohit Sharma finally found form in the ongoing tour of New Zealand as he registered his 19th half-century in T20Is and while doing that, he also breached 10,000 international runs as an opener across all the three formats. Rohit is the only batsman on the list to average over 50. In 219 innings, the elegant right-hand batsman has scored 10,117 runs at an average of 50.33.
India posted 179 against New Zealand in the 3rd T20I at Seddon Park, Hamilton. After Sharma’s knock of 65 runs, KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli contributed with some quickfire knocks.
In the chase, Kane Williamson’s 95 took the hosts to an ‘almost’ win, but they could not get one run which was needed off the last ball. Wicketkeeper Tim Seifert was batting when New Zealand needed one off the last ball off but Mohammed Shami clean bowled him.
This led to a Super Over in which New Zealand posted 18 runs and the Indian openers chased down the target, with Rohit hitting two consecutive sixes off the last two balls.
India was down and out of the game at one point and nobody expected them to win. After winning the game, Virat said,
“I thought we were gone at one stage. I told our coach that they probably deserved to finish the game off with the way Kane batted and the way he led from the front. We got a wicket at a crucial stage. Shami again showed his experience and put a couple of balls outside the off-stump. On the last ball, we had a discussion and we came to the conclusion that we had to hit the stumps because otherwise there is a single anyway and we are gonna lose the game. Shami went for it, got the wicket and the game turned on his head. In the super over, New Zealand again put pressure on us. But Rohit was outstanding today, in the first half and in the super over.”
