Hamilton: Disappointed after losing the Twenty20 International (T20I) series to New Zealand, Indian captain Rohit Sharma praised the hosts for their performance in the third match here on Sunday.
The Kiwis defeated India by four runs in the third and final T20I to take the series 2-1. The hosts had won the first match by 80 runs while India took the second game by seven wickets.
“Pretty disappointing to not get to the finishing line. 210-odd was always going to be tough, and we were in the game right till the end. But New Zealand held their nerve and they deserved to win. We started off well in ODIs, and the boys will be disappointed not getting to the finishing line in the T20s,” Rohit said after the match.
Rohit said that the Indians will have to take their lessons from the defeat and prepare for the upcoming home series against Australia.
“Lots of positives, and a few mistakes. There’s a lot of material to move ahead. It would have been nice to win the series and go home and play Australia. But unfortunately, we couldn’t do that,” he said.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, on the other hand, was delighted with his team’s performance and is looking forward to the upcoming One-Day International (ODI) series against Bangladesh and preparing for the 50-over World Cup later this year.
“What a brilliant advertisement for T20 cricket. It’s great to get across the line tonight. It was a fairly short series. The first performance (first T20I) was our best, and there was some learning in the second one,” he said.
“We knew India would come back strong. For it to go to the last couple of balls with the series on the line, it was a great series to be a part of. We go to the ODIs against Bangladesh. We travel, train and play and that’s the (hectic) nature of international cricket I suppose,” he said.
