Shubman Gill scored his maiden century in the shortest format of cricket as India hammered New Zealand by 168 runs — the highest ever margin in terms of runs in men’s cricket — in the third and final T20 international played at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday night. After amassing a huge total of 234/4 batting first, the Indian bowlers rained fire on the New Zealand batsmen as the Kiwis were shot out for the 66 in 12.1 overs with the home team winning the series 2-1.
It was Shubman Gill and India all the way from Wednesday night in the company of batting legend Sachin Tendulkar who was present at the venue to honour the India U-19 women’s team for their maiden win in the ICC T20 World Cup, which was held in South Africa recently. The Sachin Tendulkar-led presentation ceremony honoured the U-19 girls and the BCCI honoured the winning squad with a cheque of INR 5 crores before the start of the contest between India and New Zealand.
The right-handed opening batsman Shubman Gill was unstoppable on Wednesday night as he hammered 7 sixes and 12 boundaries to make 126 from the 63 balls and broke several records for his country.
Shubman Gill became the youngest batsman from India to score a T20 century and also recorded the highest individual total for any batsman from his country.
Even though it was a disappointing outing with the bat for young wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan who was dismissed for one, the other Indian batsmen had a merry time out in the middle. The right-handed No 3 batsman Rahul Tripathi smoked 3 sixes and 4 boundaries to make 44 from just 22 balls while world No 1 Suryakumar Yadav smacked 2 sixes and a boundary to score a 13-ball 24.
India captain Hardik Pandya was also belligerent with his effort, making 30 from just 17 balls with 4 boundaries and a six to take India past the 200-run mark.
Up against a mammoth total, New Zealand were required to strike the ball clean right from the start of the ashes but instead suffered a batting collapse. Arshdeep Singh rocked New Zealand with a couple of wickets at the top, dismissing the dangerous Devon Conway for 1 and the No 3 Mark Chapman for a two-ball duck. Finn Allen was removed by Hardik Pandya for 3, with the Indian captain also accounting for Glenn Phillips for 2.
New Zealand could not arrest the slide and were left tottering at 7/4 at one stage. Daryl Mitchell tried to resist the storm with a 25-ball 35 with 3 sixes and a boundary in the company of Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner, but Umran Malik struck twice to derail any plans of a comeback for the Kiwi side.
Shivam Mavi was introduced later in the attack and the right-arm fast bowler also struck twice in quick succession to make further inroads while Hardik Pandya returned to the bowling attack and took another two wickets in the form of Lockie Ferguson and Blair Tickner to pile up further misery on New Zealand.
In terms of runs, New Zealand recorded their second lowest total in T20 cricket. They have previously been bowled out for 60 twice before. India captain Hardik Pandya was the pick among the bowlers with a scintillating spell of 4-0-16-4 while the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik and Shivam Mavi took a couple of wickets apiece.
The New Zealand cricket team will now head home to prepare for an upcoming assignment against the mighty England while the Indian team will be getting together in Nagpur for a preparatory camp ahead of their all-important Test series of four matches for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting on February 9.
