India went past New Zealand in the fifth and final T20I of the series to become the first-ever side to whitewash a five-match bilateral series in the shortest format. The visitors were without the regular skipper Virat Kohli, who opted for rest to test the bench strength.
Rohit Sharma took charge of the line-up, he led from the front with a 41-ball 60 before being retired hurt having injured his calf while batting. Despite Rohit missing out on the action from the second half, the 32-year-old moved past Kohli to lead the list of most T20I half-centuries. His tally went up to 25 by virtue of his 60-run knock whereas Kohli remains behind (24).
Rohit’s innings comprised as many as 3 fours and an equal number of sixes as he struck at a strike-rate of 146.34. While the right-hander set the tempo for the Indian innings, his departure led the hosts to come back into the contest as runs dried up in the latter stage of the first-innings. With 163 runs to defend, Indian bowlers led the charge with Jasprit Bumrah returning with 4-1-12-3 whereas he was given good support by Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur and Yuzvendra Chahal.
