NEW DELHI: India captain Suryakumar Yadav said the team deliberately went in with one batter less to test themselves during the fourth T20 against New Zealand on Wednesday.

Having already wrapped up the five-match series, India chose to experiment by playing six specialist batters, including Hardik Pandya, who did not bowl on the day. Harshit Rana slotted in at number seven, while India usually bat till at least number eight.

The tactic did not quite pay off as India went down by 50 runs.

"We purposely played six batters today. We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves. Like for example, if we're chasing 200 or 180, and we wanted to see if we were two down or three down, how does it look? But then it's fine at the end of the day," said the India skipper.

"And we wanted to play all the players who are part of the World Cup squad. Otherwise, we would have played other ones."

Surya explains decision to chase

Explaining the call to field first, Suryakumar said the idea was to test India’s temperament while chasing big totals under pressure.

"We've been batting really well when we've batted first. So I wanted the guys to take that responsibility if we're chasing 180 or 200, and two wickets or three wickets are down and see how we bat. So it's a good challenge. Hopefully, if we get an opportunity again, we might chase again. But at the end of the day, good learning."

Matt Henry praises New Zealand’s character

New Zealand pacer Matt Henry said the victory highlighted the strong character within the squad after a couple of tough losses.

"It's easy after a couple of losses like that to go searching, but I think that shows a lot about the character of this group, to keep competing. That's what we kind of hang our hat on. I think the key is assessing conditions. Obviously, we've played on three really good surfaces lately, small grounds and here was no different.

"Very, very wet conditions as well. So I think for us, it's actually just about keeping fighting. You're going to have overs where you can get taken for runs, but as long as you keep believing that you can change it by taking wickets, that's what stems the flow of runs," said Henry.

(With PTI Inputs)