Young New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert was the star of the match with the bat in the T20 series opener against India on Wednesday in Wellington. Seifert smashed 84 runs off 43 balls with seven fours and six sixes to help the home side post a mammoth total of 219 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
Team India never got going as Men-in-Blue kept losing wickets at regular intervals and folded up for 139 to lose by 80 runs. The loss was also India’s biggest in terms of runs in the shortest format of the game.
After smashing the world number two team in ICC T20 ranking, Tim Seifert confessed that former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum is his hero. Seifert also said he had watched and followed McCullum while growing up.
“Yeah, obviously. I’d be lying if I said Baz (McCullum) wasn’t one of my heroes growing up,” Seifert said.
“Obviously you try to be yourself out there, but I definitely have looked at Baz throughout my childhood,” he added.
“I kind of just looked at the field and, you know, it’s all in the moment. I don’t really practice it or anything, it’s just kind of in the spirit of it, but I just thought of his angle, and obviously got him slog-sweeping a couple of times, so I thought he maybe might slow it up. Yeah, it’s kind of a little punt you take, but it’s T20 cricket for you,” Tim Seifert said.