India defeated New Zealand in the second T20 of the Kiwis’ tour of India, eventually making the series to their name. It was a series to be played for 3 T20s, with the first being won by India, and the second also came in the pocket of the Men in Blues. Team India defeated the Black Caps by 7 wickets with 16 balls left, where both the teams had a good fight, but the Blue army got the upper hand at the end.
The match
Rohit Sharma initially won the toss and elected to bowl. New Zealand while batting first got a good start, with both the openers including Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell forming a good partnership scoring 31 of 15 and 31 of 28 respectively. Also, Mark Chapman played well scoring 21 of 17 and Glenn Phillips as usual played some big-hitting shots scoring 34 off 21 helped New Zealand to reach a score of 153 with the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs.
Though while the openers were playing, the run rate was near 10, and it was thought that they would score near 200. Credit goes to the Indian bowlers that they fought back brilliantly and restricted the Kiwis to a total of 153.
Performance by Team India
All the five bowlers used in this match including Ashwin, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar, and Bhuvi picked up 1 wicket and debutant Harshal Patel picked up 2 wickets conceding 25 runs in 4 overs, eventually winning the man of the match award. India in reply, started magnificently, with the big hitters namely Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Both of them reached a half-century scoring 55 of 36 and 65 of 49 respectively.
Venkatesh Iyer and Rishabh Pant were till the end scoring 12 of 11 and 12 of 6 helping India to secure the win with ease and have the series in their pocket. They will next lock horns in the last t20 International of this series at the iconic stadium of Eden Gardens in Kolkata, on November 21.
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