WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — India followed a winning formula when it won the toss and chose to bowl Tuesday in the third Twenty20 cricket international against New Zealand.
The tourists also won the toss in the first two matches of the five-match series and won both matches by four wickets in the last over.
Needing only one more win to clinch the series, India stuck with the lineup that won the second match at Christchurch on Saturday. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gets another chance after making only four in that match.
New Zealand was forced into three changes, all among its pace attack. Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Nathan Smith are out, replaced by Adam Milne, Kyle Jamieson and Matt Fisher.
The Wellington stadium poses different challenges from Hagley Park, where the first two matches of the series were played. The square boundaries are shorter and bowlers will need to be more accurate to avoid giving up easy runs.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said he also would have bowled on winning the toss. He said India has match winners throughout its lineup and while New Zealand felt it had chances to win both of the first two matches, it will have to improve to avoid a series loss.
___ Lineups:
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Bevon Jacobs, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (captain), Matthew Fisher, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Jacob Duffy.
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
