India vs New Zealand 5th T20I: Seifert 93, NZ win by 7 wickets, India take series 3-2

New Zealand beat India by seven wickets in the fifth and final T20I at Seddon Park, Hamilton, on Sunday (1 November), but India still won the five-match series 3-2. Chasing 192, New Zealand got home in 18 overs, with Tim Seifert making 93 off 50 balls and Glenn Phillips finishing unbeaten on 65.

The BCCI confirmed the result on X: “New Zealand win the 5️⃣th and final T20I by seven wickets.”

View @BCCI’s post on X

Put in to bat by New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, India slipped to 19 for 2 as Adam Milne removed Abhishek Sharma with his first ball and Sanju Samson soon after. Ishan Kishan (61 off 32) and captain Shreyas Iyer, who reached 50 off 22 balls, then added 93 runs, taking India to 112 for 2 in the 11th over. Both fell in quick succession, and India finished on 191 for 8. Milne took 4 for 19.

The chase turned on one dropped catch. Seifert, struggling early, was put down on 13 by Naman Dhir at deep point in the fourth over. He went on to hit 11 fours and five sixes before he was out seven short of a maiden T20I hundred. Phillips, the player of the series, saw New Zealand home and ended with 341 runs, the most by any batter in a bilateral T20I series, beating England’s Phil Salt’s 331.

Iyer admitted India were not at their best with the ball and in the field. “We still could have been better with our bowling and fielding. We were a bit sloppy,” he said at the post-match presentation, calling the tour a “great learning curve”.

Santner felt the series was closer than the scoreline. “Obviously, the scoreline shows 3-2 to India, but could have been the other way around,” he said, PTI reported.

India had sealed the series by winning the first three matches before New Zealand hit back with an 87-run win in the fourth T20I at Eden Park, which The Indian Idiot reported earlier. It was India’s first series win in a SENA country under Iyer’s captaincy, according to PTI. The two teams now turn to a five-match ODI series, which starts at Eden Park, Auckland, on Wednesday.