Hamilton, Nov 1 (IANS) Tim Seifert missed out on another opportunity to slam his maiden international century as he fell on 93 against India in the fifth and final T20I of the series at Seddon Park here on Sunday, but called that the win was the main thing that he wanted.

Seifert had a low-key series until the fifth T20I as he was dismissed for single-digit scores in all the previous four games. However, he slammed 93 from 50 balls after getting dropped on 13 earlier in the innings.

He played on a Nitish Kumar Reddy back-of-a-length delivery back to his stumps, falling seven short of a maiden International ton. Speaking at the post-match press conference after New Zealand chased down 192 to win the fifth match by seven wickets, Seifert joked that the monkey is still on my back.

"No, look, the main thing is to win. But at the same time, you know, that monkey's still on my back for getting my first International 100. So look, you're still a little bit devastated about that. And I think my shoulders and back are getting a bit heavier as well, " he joked.

"But no, I think the main thing is winning. And that's the great thing.

But at the end of the day as well, you sometimes got to get over the line, especially because I haven't got one before. So yeah, hopefully it doesn't take another 95 games to get that opportunity. But we'll see what happens," Seifert added.

The New Zealand opener also spoke about adapting to the conditions being the key for the Kiwi openers, as he had a tough initial four matches before he bounced back. "Yeah, look, I think you've got to be true to yourself. You know, you can fall into a bit of T20 cricket. But you know, you still got to be tough on yourself about playing high-quality shots, high-percentage shots for you.

Yes, you want to put pressure on the bowlers. But you know, sometimes you can get a bit ahead of yourself and try to go too hard. I think you still got to adapt to the wicket that you play on.

So you play in India, you play in New Zealand, two completely different wickets. So no matter where you play in the world, you just got to adapt to what you're playing on. Some will be easier to play shots early; some you might have to wait until the back end of the powerplay.

Seifert also hailed praise for teammate Glenn Phillips, who scored 341 runs in the series and broke the record for most runs made by a player in a bilateral T20I series.

"You know, he's been playing unbelievably in all formats for New Zealand recently. And credit to him. I think for us guys at the top as well, knowing that, you know, we bat all the way down that balance of our team.

"No matter who's coming in, you know, we just keep on attacking. And look, to break the highest ever in a five-match series, you got to take a hat off to him and say well played. But just the way he went about his innings as well, he didn't necessarily come out all guns blazing at the start, got himself in and then picked up his match-ups throughout the innings. So yeah, credit to him," Seifert said.

--IANS

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