HAMILTON: Skipper Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan rediscovered their form with well-paced fifties but pacer Adam Milne-led New Zealand managed to keep India down to a below par 191 for eight in the fifth and final T20I here on Sunday.
India, who enjoy an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, went through three contrasting phases in their innings — an early stutter, a middle-over acceleration, and then a rather lukewarm finish.
Iyer (50, 23b) and Kishan (61, 32b) shared an alliance of 107 runs in little more than seven overs as India enjoyed a productive middle segment.
There was a bit of purchase for pacers in the track, but Iyer and Kishan were hardly bothered.
Kishan was a bit slow off the block, making just 13 runs off 11 balls but there was no looking back once he got his eye in.
The transformation came along with a boundary to the long-off off pacer Nathan Smith and a cut six over point off Blair Tickner.
At the other end, Shreyas, who could not get a big score after registering his maiden T20I hundred against the West Indies last month, had no such teething issues.
The Mumbai man started off with a flicked six off Smith, and high caliber shots flowed.
Off-spinner Michael Bracewell bore the brunt of Iyer’s fury, getting creamed for 6, 4, 6 in a row and the last six travelled a 100m distance.
Kishan reached his fifty off 28 balls with a six off Bracewell, and Iyer, who was dropped on 40, soon followed suit, reaching his half-century in 22 balls with a four off Smith.
But New Zealand clawed back precisely at that stage, claiming the wicket of Kishan, caught at mid-wicket by Smith off Tickner in the 11th over.
In the 12th over, the Kiwis netted the big fish in Iyer, whose awkward attempt to pull Smith ended in the hands of stumper Tim Seifert.
From that point, India struggled for momentum as Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, who was dropped on 14, and Nitish Kumar Reddy could not stitch beefy hits together.
In fact, India managed just 57 runs between overs 14 and 20 as pacer Milne (4/19) kept chipping in with wickets.
It mirrored India’s early turmoil when they lost openers Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson for just 19 runs on the board in 3.1 overs.
It will also raise questions about Samson’s consistency ahead of India’s next T20I series in December.