It was always assumed that winning the T20 series against New Zealand is a tough feat. As the Kiwis were the World’s best team in that format, there was the least hope, but, with the current form of India since a year or two, there was this mild hope of winning the fine number of matches.
After leveling the series at 1-1, Indian team along with the whole cricket fraternity was quite curious about the possibility of the results of the final match, which also is a series-decider. With the heavy rains that intruded the match, the length of the match is adjusted to mere 8 overs. India batted first and made it possible to amass fine 67 runs in 8 overs.
Now, when the job came to Kiwis, they did well in the beginning. But, it was Indian bowlers show all the way. Surprising everyone, Kohli handed over the bowling business to Jasprit Bumrah while Kiwis needed 29 runs in two overs, that is, 12 balls. And, during the last over, Captain Virat Kohli handed the ball to Jasprit Bumrah and it proved to be a wise decision as the pacer gave away only ten runs and picked a wicket as well apart from a run-out.
Though it was earlier assumed that his idea was pretty nice, post the match Kohli revealed that he did that after receiving the suggestion from Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. He added, “Rohit (Sharma) and MS (Dhoni) came up with Bumrah bowling the second last.”
Meanwhile, he added, “Hardik (Pandya) bowled the last over well. When Hardik got hurt, I was like God forbid if I had to bowl the last four balls. We were really happy that we were able to get a game in eventually. This crowd deserved to watch some action because they waited patiently. It was an exciting game again.”
Talking about winning the match despite the bad weather, he stated, “like the one-dayers we expected them to give us a good fight. I know the wicket was a little damp earlier on so we were quite nervous about getting enough runs on the board but 67 turned out to be a good total plus we saved a few in the field as well.”