Man of the Series of today cricket match: Who won IND vs NZ Man of the Series award in T20I series?

IND vs NZ Man of the Series: India have whitewashed New Zealand 3-0 in the recently concluded three-match T20I series.

During the third T20I of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of India in Kolkata, India beat New Zealand by 73 runs to register a 3-0 series victory. Winning the toss for the third time in a row, India captain Rohit Sharma was brave enough to opt to bat first despite the dew.

A comprehensive performance across divisions witnessed the Indian team justifying Sharma’s decision by standing tall on their potential in both the innings.

Chasing a difficult 185-run target at the Eden Gardens tonight, all New Zealand could manage was 111 in 17.2 overs despite opening batter Martin Guptill contributing with a stroke-filled 51 (36) comprising of four fours and four sixes.

While Axar Patel was the pick of the Indian bowlers with bowling figures of 3-0-9-3, Harshal Patel was the second-best bowler after having dismissed James Neesham (3) and Ish Sodhi (9).

Who won IND vs NZ Man of the Series award?

The battle for the ‘Man of the Series’ award was closely fought between Sharma and Guptill – the two highest run-scorers of the series. Sharma, highest run-scorer in his first series as a full-time captain, bagged the award for the second time in his T20I career.

In addition to leading India in a fantastic manner throughout the series, Sharma scored as many as 159 runs at an average and strike rate of 53 and 154.36 respectively including a couple of half-centuries.

“It’s important to start well. That’s always been my mindset. Once you’ve seen the pitch you know what you’ve got to do. It was nicely coming onto the bat with the dew coming early. We had something planned as a batting group. Wouldn’t say it worked out well. Room for improvement in the middle-order.

“I’ve grown up playing on a concrete pitch back in the day. Once I started opening a lot of things changed. Won’t say it comes naturally,” Sharma told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.