Both India and New Zealand had lost their opening encounters to Pakistan and were desperately looking for a win. This game was being called by many as a virtual knockout of sorts. The Men in Blue had never beaten the Kiwis in a World T20. After being sent in to bat, India’s innings never really got going. The runs were hard to come by in the powerplay and they lost two wickets of Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul, both being caught at deep square leg. The Kiwi spinners also continued to hold the stranglehold over India’s line up as they were immaculate with their lengths. Even though there wasn’t much purchase off the wicket, Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi bowled in the right areas and caused the Indian batters to be erroneous in their shot selection.
Ish Sodhi in particular was fantastic with the ball, executing his leg spinners and wrong-uns to perfection. That led to the dismissal of skipper Virat Kohli and Vice Captain Rohit Sharma, both caught at Long-on. Santner was economical with the ball, giving away a mere 15 in his quota of 4 overs. Some excellent death bowling allowed New Zealand to keep India down to a total of 110/7.
In reply, New Zealand’s openers Daryll Mitchell and Martin Guptill started off decently. Bumrah broke their 24-run partnership, after Guptill mistimed and skied one up straight under mid-on’s throat. From there on, the game looked dead and buried. Opener Mitchell demolished the Indian bowling attack, taking on Shami, Thakur and Jadeja for big overs. The Blackcaps skipper Kane Williamson anchored the innings at the other end and gave as much strike to Mitchell as possible. The partnership was finally broken at 96, but a little too late as the game was already gone by then.
New Zealand cruised to a comfortable 8 wicket win, bagging two valuable points. The only good sign for India was that Hardik Pandya was fit enough to bowl two overs. After two massive losses against quality oppositions, India are all but gone out of this World T20, as their hopes of making it to the semis rely on other teams and their NRR. New Zealand on the other hand would wish to continue this momentum and win the remaining of their three games of the league stage.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 