New Zealand's national cricket team finished the 5-T20I series 2-3 down to India, winning the last two matches. After going down in the first three matches, they made a strong bounce-back and saved themselves from a whitewash threat. Mitchell Santner believed that the series could have been turned the other way as well.

Today, on November 1, the Mitchell Santner-led side defeated India by 7 wickets at Seddon Park in Hamilton. Glenn Phillips, who scored a match-winning century for New Zealand in Auckland, finished the match off in style, hitting a four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

New Zealand defeated India in Hamilton

The series staged five high-scoring matches between the finalists of the 2026 T20 World Cup. From the beginning, India was the favorite to win the series, and they got the series by a 3-2 margin as well, but they will have to address multiple questions, including the team combinations and strategies going forward before their next T20I matches.

For the fifth and the final match of the T20I series, the Indian cricket team made a few changes in their playing including removing Axar Patel and Mayank Yadav from the line-up. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi stayed on the bench again. Mitchell Santner's side also made a change as they brought in Blair Ticker for Matt Fisher.

Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips secured a win for New Zealand

Going to bat first, India lost both of their openers, Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, inside the powerplay. Ishan Kishan and captain Shreyas Iyer each scored a half-century to rescue the team from the early blows. Naman Dhir and Nitish Kumar Reddy contributed with their explosive knocks to secure a respective total for the team.

Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips made the run chase easy. Seifert provided New Zealand a solid start with his 93 runs off 50 balls, and from the middle to the end of the innings, Phillips crafted an unbeaten 65 off 38 to end the match. It was one of the highest successful run chases by the New Zealand cricket team in T20Is.

Highest target successfully chased by New Zealand in T20Is
201 vs Zimbabwe, Hamilton, 2012
194 vs Pakistan, Rawalpindi 2023
192 vs India Hamilton 2026
183 vs Sri Lanka Queenstown 2023
183 vs Afghanistan Chennai 2026

Mitchell Santner on the series defeat vs India

After the match, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner mentioned that India might have won the series by 3-2, but the result could go the other way as the entire series was very tight. Santner was pleased with the way his teammates played the competition from beginning to end.

"I think we'll reflect on that and we'll know it was a very tight series against a very good team. From a cricketing point of view, a lot of good stuff. Obviously the scoreline shows 3-2 India, but it could've been the other way around," Mitchell Santner said after the India vs New Zealand 5th T20I match (as quoted by Cricbuzz).

"There was a bit with the new ball, but then Shreyas and Kishan put the foot down. We're in a great spot in terms of depth at the moment. To do it every game is pretty special (Phillips). He gives himself a bit of time. I think the batting's been pretty good. 200 most games and 260 as well," he added.