We fell short in our bowling Shreyas Iyer

Auckland, Oct 30 (PTI) India skipper Shreyas Iyer on Friday admitted that the bowling unit performed below par in their 87-run defeat against New Zealand in the fourth T20 International here, underlining the need to go back to the drawing board ahead of the final match.

     Having already lost the series, New Zealand came back with a stellar batting show with a total of 259 for 7 riding on Glenn Phillips' 107 off 49 balls and Michael Bracewell's 25-ball-65.

     Phillips took 32 off one over from Nitish Kumar Reddy -- 16th of the innings -- in which he hit four consecutive sixes. Between Phillips and Bracewell, they hit a jaw dropping 16 sixes out of the team's total of 20 maximums.

     "We fell short in our bowling. The power play, especially in the third over, they got the momentum thereon. Exceptional shots from Glenn, some phenomenal shots, pure bliss. Important to retrospect, we have to see how to bounce back. I feel we can go back to the drawing board and execute," Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

     The Eden Park is one of the smallest T20 grounds with awkward dimensions and Iyer said it could be tricky for first timers.

     "We knew the dimensions were going to be like this. First time for some of them. Not easy to adapt. The way they executed in the first three games was magnificent. Great learning curve."

     New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner was happy to get some breakthroughs in the power play overs.

     "With the wind, it didn't dew up. You have to bowl well against these guys and we did. We saw a couple fly through at the start. The guys bashed through and we managed to take wickets in the powerplay. There is a little on the wicket, which is what we want. On a wicket that bounces, it is quite good," Santner said.

     Santner acknowledged Bracewell's cameo proved to be decisive.

     "The way he came in, from ball one to keep going to push the score to 260... nice to see Beasty get runs, he's striking well in the nets. We made some tough options of hitting down the ground against those lengths. Duff nailing hard lengths and getting two to start is nice."

Centurion Phillips found the pitch to be really conducive for stroke-play.

     "It was fabulous. A really good pitch to bat on. We made the most of it. Nice to get a few runs and contribute (to the winning cause).You make the purple patch last," he said about his consistent show in the ongoing series.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)