Seifert stars as NZ seal record win
India crashed to their worst ever Twenty20 defeat as an aggressive 84 by Tim Seifert set New Zealand up for an 80-run win in Wellington on Wednesday.
"It was one of those complete performances that you do search for," beamed New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, happy to see his side bounce back from the drubbing inflicted by India in the recent one-day international series.
The explosive 86-run opening partnership off 50 deliveries by Seifert and Colin Munro laid the foundations for New Zealand to build their third highest T20 total of 219-6.
India were all out in reply for 139 with four balls remaining, in only the eighth time they have failed to bat through a 20-over innings.
Their previous worst defeat was by 49 runs to Australia at Bridgetown in 2010.
India captain Rohit Sharma could not hide his disappointment, having elected to bowl when he won the toss because chasing a target is his side's strong suit.
"We were outplayed in all three departments," he said. "We have chased targets of 200 (plus) before and that's probably the reason we played with eight batsmen.
"As a team we have always chased down targets and we believe that whatever target is set in front of us we can do it.
He added: "We were confident of getting that target. It's a small ground. We just needed that one big partnership which we failed to do."
SCORES IN BRIEF
NEW ZEALAND: 219 for 6 in 20 overs (Seifert 84, Munro 34, Williamson 34, Taylor 23, Kuggeleijn 20 not out; Pandya 2-51)
INDIA: 139 all out in 19.2 overs (Dhawan 29, Shankar 27, Dhoni 39, Pandya 20; Southee 3-17, Ferguson 2-22, Santner 2-24, Sodhi 2-26)
Result: New Zealand won by 80 runs.
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