Hamilton, Jan 29 (UNI) Riding on a brilliant fifty from Rohit Sharma (65 off 40 ), India posted a challenging total of 179-5 in the third T20I of the five-match series against New Zealand at Seddon Park, here on Wednesday.
Apart from Rohit, Virat Kohli (38 off 27), KL Rahul (27 off 19) , Shreyas Iyer (17 off 16) also made useful contributions with the bat for India in the third T20I.
Hamish Bennett was the most successful bowler for Kiwis with 3 wickets, while Colin de Grandhomme and Mitchell Santner picked one. wicket each.
After being put into bat first, openers gave India a flying start, scoring 69/0 in 6 overs.
Rohit Sharma came back in form after two single-digit scores on the tour to hit a 23-ball fifty including a 27-run over. Rohit also completed his 10,000 international runs as an opener across formats.
The opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma shared an 89-run stand for the first wicket a good batting pitch. Colin de Grandhomme gave Kiwis their maiden breakthrough in the 9th over, dismissing KL Rahul for 27.
Shivam Dube was promoted to No 3 after Rahul's wicket. However, it didn't work for India as he perished after scoring 7-ball 3.
Soon, Rohit Sharma (65 off 40 ) too got out in the same over as Hamish Benneth struck twice in a space of three deliveries in Hamilton.
From there on, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer batted cautiously and took India to 106/3 after 13 overs.
During their partnership, Virat Kohli also went past MS Dhoni on the list of captains with most runs in T20I cricket. Dhoni held the Indian record with 1112 runs from 72 matches at an average of 37.06 while Kohli took only 37 matches to go past Dhoni's tally as captain in T20I cricket.
Just when Kohli was accelerating the run-rate, Mitchell Santner outfoxed Shreyas Iyer to dent India's progress in Hamilton. Manish Pandey walked in to bat at No 6 for the visitors.
Virat Kohli, who tried to score freely departed for 38, giving Hamish Bennett his 3rd wicket of the match.
In the end, some late flourish by Manish Pandey (14 off 6) and Ravindra Jadeja (10 off 5) , taking 18 runs from the last over, guided India to a fighting total of 179/5 after 20 overs in the third match of the series.
UNI AVK SB 1433