The Indian side managed to achieve something special, which no other cricket playing nation has been able to make thus far. Whitewashing Kiwis at home, a 5-nil comprehensive victory, is something unheard of.
Post-defeat, the Kiwi veteran Ross Taylor rued that no team can afford to concede an advantage to the current Indian side.
“The whole series has been a disappointment, the way we put ourselves in good positions and just were not able to capitalize. When you are up against a world-class side like India, we have played a lot worse and got better results than this,” stated Taylor in a post-match Sky Sports interview.
The current New Zealand team has had the habit of giving away games at crunch situations. In the 2019 World Cup final, the Black Caps were hard done by the rules of the Super Over. In the third and fourth T20I, the Kiwis took the game to the super over from winning positions.
“Even though it’s a different format (than ODI and Test), it still does hurt. Winning is a habit and losing those tight games. But we are going into a format that is one of our strengths.
One of the pioneers and ambassadors of the T20 game, New Zealand, currently are failing to get past the hurdle of Super Over.
“You can’t give this Indian side an inch, we gave them a lot more than that, and they took advantage. You got to learn a lot quicker than we are now with both bat and ball. Until then, we will get similar results,” continued Taylor.
However, Kiwis should not feel disheartened by the loss as they were devoid of their key fast bowlers, namely Trent Boult, Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson.
This series win should heal some of the wounds of Virat Kohli & Co. which they got with the semi-final loss against New Zealand in the World Cup.
“I probably say this, we were completely outplayed in the series last year, and we came back and won that semi-final in the World Cup. Whenever we play India in a T20I game, we know it will be an uphill task, but we know we can still beat them when it counts hopefully,” concluded Ross Taylor.
