Arshdeep Singh added another feather on his cap after the Indian pacer dismissed Finn Allen early in the chase during the fifth and final T20I at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Sunday. It was Arshdeep’s sixth wicket in the ongoing series after he took five in the first four games, out of which India won three. New Zealand’s only win in the series came in Auckland.
Sent into bat first, India rode on half-centuries from and helped the visitors to 191/8 in 20 overs. Hadn’t be it a middle-order collapse, India would have reached close to 230 or even more. For New Zealand, Adam Milne was the wrecker-in-chief with 4/19.
Chasing 191, New Zealand needed a strong start. Allen, who has provided blistering starts in the past four games in the series, fell to on the second over of the day. The Indian left-arm pacer bangs it short, with Allen attempting a pull. But the ball takes a top edge only for Kishan to take a simple catch on the third ball from .
Notably, Milne had spoke about variable bounce during the innings break and that seemed to work for India as well. In the process, Arshdeep equalled former New Zealand pacer Tim Southee for most wickets in the first six overs in T20Is among the full member teams (who holds full viting rights in ICC meetings and the right to play Tests).
Both Arshdeep (in 99 innings) and Southee (in 119 innings) have 65 wickets each to their names in the first six overs in T20Is. The Zimbabwean pace duo of Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava are third and fourth in the list with 62 wickets each during the said period.
Pakistan’s is fifth in the list with 60 scalps.
Earlier, India scripted a world record by becoming the first team in T20I history to reach the landmark of 400 sixes in a calendar year in Hamilton. During the match, the back-to-back world champions hammered a total of 11 sixes, touching the 400-run mark.
This year across 40 T20Is, India has hit 400 sixes, with Austria (224 sixes in 24 matches) and West Indies (224 sixes in 21 matches) being their distant rivals. 142 of those have come against New Zealand – the most against an opposition in a calendar year.
Abhishek Sharma (86 sixes), Ishan Kishan (60 sixes) and Sanju Samson (50 sixes) have been six-hitting leaders for India. India were 19/2 at one point, with Ishan (61 in 31 balls) and Shreyas (50 in 23 balls) putting on a 93-run stand for the third wicket. Naman Dhir (33 in 23 balls) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (22 in 17 balls) also chipped in.
