VISAKHAPATNAM, India (AP) — Shivam Dube struck 65 runs off 23 balls but his effort went in vain as New Zealand beat India by 50 runs in the fourth T20 on Wednesday.
Dube raced to a 15-ball 50, hitting seven sixes and three fours in all, but he didn’t find much support from the Indian lineup. Rinku Singh scored 39 off 30 balls.
This was after New Zealand scored 215-7 in 20 overs, thanks to a 100-run opening stand between Devon Conway and Tim Seifert.
Seifert scored 62 off 36 balls, with three sixes and seven fours, while Conway made 44 off 23 balls.
Daryl Mitchell scored 39 not out off 18 balls with three sixes.
In reply, India was bowled out for 165 runs in 18.4 overs. Mitchell Santner picked 3-26 in four overs, while Ish Sodhi (2-46) and Jacob Duffy (2-33) returned a brace each.
India already had an unassailable 3-0 series lead. Thiruvananthapuram will host the final T20 on Saturday.
Put into bat, New Zealand got off to the best start of this series. The opening duo scored 71 runs in the powerplay as Seifert reached 50 off 25 balls.
Their 100-stand came off 49 deliveries, but Kuldeep Yadav provided the breakthrough immediately after. Rachin Ravindra was caught and bowled off Jasprit Bumrah for 2.
Yadav (2-39) struck again to remove Glenn Phillips for 24, while Seifert holed off Arshdeep Singh in between. New Zealand was down to 137-4 in the 14th over.
It further lost two more middle-order wickets and was 163-6 at one stage. But Mitchell pulled things back in the lower order and took 19 runs off Bumrah’s penultimate over.
He added 33 off 12 balls with Matt Henry as New Zealand crossed 200.
In reply, India lost Abhishek Sharma for a golden duck — bowled off Henry. Suryakumar Yadav batted at No. 3 in the absence of injured Ishan Kishan, but was out for 8.
Sanju Samson (24) and Rinku Singh added 46 off 28 balls for the third wicket. Santner then struck twice in successive overs to remove both Samson and Hardik Pandya (2).
Dube then came to the crease, even as Zakary Foulkes trapped Singh lbw in the 11th over to leave India 82-5.
Dube put on 63 off 27 balls with Harshit Rana (9), but was run out in the 15th over to end India’s hopes for an unlikely win.
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket