In the second Twenty20 International match, which took place on Sunday in Lucknow, India defeated New Zealand by a narrow margin to tie the series. The Indian spinners excelled on the twisting ground, and the Indian batters made difficult work of chasing down a low goal.
On a pitch that helped them, the bowling unit consisting of Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, and Kuldeep Yadav did very well to restrict a self-destructing New Zealand team to 99 for eight, which was New Zealand’s lowest total against India in the shortest format.
It was supposed to be an easy run chase, but the top-order batsmen, which included Ishan Kishan (19 runs off 32 balls), Shubman Gill (11 runs off 9 balls), and Rahul Tripathi (13 runs off 18 balls), had a difficult time once again due to the spin-friendly conditions.
Hardik Pandya (15 not out off 20) and Suryakumar Yadav (26 not out off 31) were the ones to get the side across the finish line in the end, and they did it with a ball to spare and six wickets in hand.
On Wednesday, the game that will decide the series will take place in Ahmedabad.
Younger players have been given opportunities because veterans like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have not participated in Twenty20 matches since the World Cup in 2017. These possibilities have not yet been capitalised on by the younger players.
Since scoring a double hundred in Bangladesh, Kishan has struggled to find his form, and Gill has been unable to replicate the dazzling form he had in one-day internationals in twenty-over matches.
The elegant right-hander failed to extract a spinner for the second game in a row and was taken aback by the amount of turn that was required.
Tripathi, who is getting the opportunity to play at number three due to Kohli’s absence, was unable to take the assault to the spinners from New Zealand.
The Indians were under pressure, which was demonstrated when Washington Sundar was run out. Sundar was willing to give up his wicket in order to keep Surya in the middle for as long as possible.
India had the luxury of taking its time in the pursuit because the price it was asking was never a concern.
A lot of anxiety was relieved when Hardik’s bat smashed a four after 45 balls in the 19th over. This was done before the captain finished the job alongside Surya, who hit the winning four.
Earlier on, after Hardik opened the bowling alone, he made the decision to utilise spinners from both ends during the powerplay.
Finger spinner Washington (1/17) produced another neat stint, while wrist spinners Kuldeep (1/17) and Chahal (1/4), playing in a Twenty20 together after a while, squeezed a lot out of the Lucknow pitch.
Following the completion of the first ball of his opening spell, Chahal was left licking his lips. The ball pitched on leg stump and then beat the outside edge of Finn Allen’s bat. It was a ripper.
The opener was out two balls later when the ball crashed into his rear leg when he was trying to reverse sweep it, and it then went on to crash through the stumps.
Ishan Kishan was able to take the wicket of the in-form Devon Conway thanks to a reverse sweep since the ball touched his gloves on its approach to him.
When he attempted to reverse sweep the part-time off-spinner Deepak Hooda, the dangerous Glenn Phillips missed a straight ball that was bowled by Deepak Hooda. As a result, New Zealand was immediately reduced to 35 for three in the seventh over.
Kuldeep Yadav delivered a magnificent ball to Daryl Mitchell, and it came back in at a sharp angle to smash the stumps.
Although New Zealand has a strong batting lineup, none of its hitters were able to apply themselves effectively to the challenging surface.
The death overs were the only ones in which the fast bowler Arshdeep Singh, who had been bowling an excessive number of no balls as of late, and Shivam Mavi appeared.
In spite of the difficulty of his two overs, Arshdeep was able to successfully take wickets and limit the damage he caused to only eight runs. Hardik’s final stats were one wicket for 25 runs scored in four overs.
India
