India wrap up T20I series against NZ with a commanding victory in Kerala

by Devesh Jaganath | by Devesh Jaganath

image India wrap up T20I series against NZ with a commanding victory in Kerala
India capped off an excellent T20I series against New Zealand with a commanding 46-run victory in the fifth and final match in Kerala on Sunday evening. With that result, the Men in Blue ended the series with a 4-1 victory and head into the T20 World Cup with solid momentum.

Ishan Kishan leads India to series victory with blistering century 

India will carry solid momentum into the T20 World Cup next week after making fairly light work of New Zealand in their series this month. The Men in Blue clinched a 4-1 victory on Sunday when they defeated the Black Caps by 46 runs in Kerala and confirmed our cricket predictions. 

After winning the toss and electing to bat, India got off to a brisk start, scoring 31 runs in the first three overs before Sanju Samson was dismissed. Abhishek Sharma then departed for 30 runs, leaving the team at 48/2 in the fifth over.

However, that brought Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav to the crease, and the pair delivered a magnificent 137-run third-wicket stand, navigating the team to 185/3 by the 15th over before the skipper was stumped by Tim Seifert off Mitchell Santner. 

Kishan went on to reach his century (103 off 43 balls), including six 4s and ten 6s, while Hardik Padya played a stunning innings at number five, blasting 42 runs in just 17 deliveries to get the side to a solid total of 271/5 in their 20 overs. 

Arshdeep Singh peaking ahead of T20 World Cup 

After their solid batting effort, Arshdeep Singh played a starring role for India, bagging five wickets for 51 runs in his four overs, proving why he could be the team’s key bowler leading up to the 2026 T20 World Cup next week.

Singh picked up the wickets of Tim Seifert in the very first over and added the scalps of Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell and Kyle Jamieson in his four-over allotment. Axar Patel chipped in with 3/33 in his four overs. 

The importance of Singh’s bowling performance was underlined by the fact that Jasprit Bumrah failed to take a wicket and went for 58 runs, while the number one-ranked bowler in T20s, Varun Chakaravarthy, only took one wicket for 36 runs. 

Singh has now firmly announced himself as India’s main pace option for the T20 World Cup, which gets underway next week. India are the defending champions and get their title defence started against the USA on February 7.