India skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday expressed happiness after his side defeated New Zealand by 73 runs to claim a clean sweep in the three-match T20I series. Rohit Sharma’s 56-run knock, followed by Axar Patel‘s three-wicket haul, helped India defeat New Zealand by 73 runs in the third and final T20I at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.

In an interview, Rohit Sharma said, “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. Wouldn’t say it worked out well. Room for improvement in the middle order.”

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“The batting front – KL (Rahul) missed out today but his form is critical. Middle-order didn’t get much opportunity except today. The spinners did the job for us in the entire series. The way (Ravichandran) Ashwin bowled, Axar. And how (Yuzvendra) Chahal came back. Good to see Venkatesh Iyer bowling those overs with the skills he has,” said Rohit Sharma in the post-match presentation.

The Indian skipper first made a statement scoring 56 off 31 balls in India’s 184 for 7 and then made some immaculate captaincy calls which witnessed New Zealand’s surrender for a paltry 111 runs in 17.2 overs.

It was a second back-to-back bilateral T20I series triumph with a clean sweep for India after beating the Black Caps 5-0 in their own den in 2020.

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Axar Patel (3/9) bowled accurately and also got one to turn as his three wickets in Powerplay literally ended New Zealand’s resistance and the rest was a mere formality.

The New Zealand team looked bone tired after a gruelling T20 World Cup campaign and the result won’t be a fair reflection of the team’s capabilities as they went through the motions for the better part of the three games.