Santner Wins Toss, Chooses to Bowl as New Zealand Faces India
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner secured the toss in the final T20 match, breaking a four-game streak where India's Shreyas Iyer called the coin.
By Chloe Zhao ·
Mitchell Santner called heads and won the toss on Sunday at Hamilton, New Zealand. The captain elected to bowl first in the fifth and final Twenty20 international against India. This marked the first time Santner controlled the opening decision in the series.
Shreyas Iyer had won the toss in the previous four encounters. India leveraged those advantages to take the series by defeating New Zealand in the first three games. The margins of victory were four wickets, four wickets, and six wickets, respectively.
New Zealand reversed the momentum in the fourth match on Friday in Auckland. The Black Caps won by 87 runs, a result driven by a century from Glenn Phillips. That performance set the stage for the decider in Hamilton.
India adjusted its playing XI with two changes from the Auckland match. The team recalled pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and included wrist spinner Varun Chakravartih for his debut appearance in this series. New Zealand also rotated its lineup, bringing in pacer Blair Tickner in place of Matt Fisher.
The teams fielded the following lineups. New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Jacob Duffy, and Blair Tickner. India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravartih, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Source: Greenwich Time
