Seifert, Southee hand India their worst T20I defeat

New Zealand 219 for 6 (Seifert 84, Hardik 2-51) beat India 139 (Dhoni 39, Southee 3-17) by 80 runs

Wellington: India will be fancying starting another series on a winning note as they clash with under pressure hosts New Zealand in the opening T20 International here on Wednesday.

The Rohit Sharma-led squad will be hoping it has enough left in the tank to record a maiden T20 series win in New Zealand, following a record 4-1 result in ODIs and a historic tour of Australia.

After being badly bruised and battered in the ODI series Kane Williamson-led side must be eager to get to the winning ways in the shortest format that suits several Kiwi players. Also, the hosts enjoy good record in this format against the Indians and that must give them a lot of confidence.

India's track record against the Kiwis isn't that impressive in the T20Is. The two teams have faced each other eight times before in T20I cricket and India have won only two of them, and lost six. Team India haven't won a single T20I game in the Kiwiland.

However, those two victories did come in their last three outings against NZ (L1). But Team India enjoys an impressive run of form in T20Is off late, claiming 12 wins in their last 14 completed outings and losing just two.

Rohit and his band must be striving to continue the dominant show in the shortest format of the game but they'll have to come up with a formidable Playing XI against the Black Caps, who despite being ranked 6th in the latest ICC T20I Rankings, are still a dangerous team at home.

Tim Seifert scored his maiden T20I fifty. Kane Williamson scored 34 runs today. He needs 42 runs more to get past 1,500 T20I runs for the Kiwis. Shikhar Dhawan went past Mahmudullah and Jos Buttler in career T20I runs (1,261).

With 219/6, Kiwis ensured that they notched their highest T20I score against India. It was also the highest T20I score in Wellington.

The previous best at the Westpac was also recorded by the Kiwis (196/5 against Pakistan and England).

Tim Seifert (84) notched the third highest T20I score for NZ against India. He hit the second-most number of sixes for Kiwis against India (6).