3rd T20I: New Zealand beat India by 4 runs; win series 2-1

Hamilton: India left four runs short to chase the mammoth target of 212 runs set by New Zealand at the 3rd and final T20 International match played here on Sunday. With this win, New Zealand also won the series 2-1.

India got a poor start with the opener Shikhar Dhawan sent back to pavillion in the very first over by scoring just 5 runs. Rohit Sharma and Vijay Shankar built a partnership but Shankar lost his wicket after scoring a quick 43 runs off 28 balls.

Rishabh Pant, the next man on the crease wa also in good form but cannot sustain for long as he departed after scoring 28 runs off just 12 balls.

It was not Rohit's day today as he too failed to deliver for long from his bat and he was out after scoring 38 runs off 32 balls.

Pandya and MS Dhoni too failed to stay for long on the crease. Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya remained the showstoppers of the Indian innings as they took their team close to win. Karthik scored 33 runs of just 16 balls, while Pandya made 26 runs off 13 balls.

Their efforts, however, were good but not good enough and India loses to Kiwis by 4 runs.

For New Zealand, Southee and Mitchell took two wickets each, while Sodhi plucked one wicket.

Colin Munro remained the 'Player of the Match' by scoring a brilliant 72 runs off just 40 balls.