Captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday was all
praise of Venkatesh Iyer as the all-rounder returned with 12 for 1 in three
overs in India’s 73 runs win against New Zealand in the third T20I at Eden
Gardens, Kolkata. Adam Milne was his maiden scalp in international cricket.

India defended 184 for 7 after chasing down
totals in first and second T20Is in Jaipur and Ranchi. At Eden Gardens, India
skittled New Zealand out for 111 in 17.2 overs to complete a 3-0 clean sweep.

In the post-match presentation ceremony,
Rohit Sharma said, “Good to see Venkatesh Iyer bowling those overs with the
skills he has. Important for us going forward. I would prefer that going
forward.”

Venkatesh Iyer failed to impress as a
batter in the three-match T20I series but on Sunday he shone with the bowl.

After a fine season with Kolkata Knight
Riders in IPL 2021 in the UAE, Venkatesh made his India debut in the T20I
series against New Zealand.

Harshal
receives accolades from Rohit

Rohit also hailed Harshal Patel who had a
dream debut in Ranchi returning with a match-winning 2 for 25. At Eden Gardens,
he followed it with 2 for 26 in three overs. He got the scalps of Jimmy Neesham
and Ish Sodhi after scoring 18 off 11 coming down to bat No. 8. The Royal
Challengers Bangalore and Haryana cricketer Harshal hit two sixes and a
boundary before being out hit-wicket.

At No. 9, Deepak Chahar scored a quickfire 21 not
out from nine balls as India scored 50 runs in the last five overs to set a
daunting target for the Blackcaps.

“Teams around the world bat deep till
No. 8 and No. 9. Harshal, when he plays for Haryana, opens the batting for
them. And then Deepak, we’ve seen what he did in Sri Lanka. Chahal was looking
forward to bat as well,” he said.

Rohit
Sharma adjudged Man of the Series

In his first series as a full-time captain,
Rohit won with the Man-of-the-Series award for being the top run-scorer — 159
runs from 103 balls at an average of 53.00 with a 154.36 strike rate.

“It’s important to start well. That’s
always been my mindset. Once you’ve seen the pitch you know what you’ve got to
do. It was nicely coming onto the bat with the dew coming early. We had
something planned as a batting group,” said Rohit, who struck 56 off 31
balls on Sunday.