After a tight bowling, India beat New Zealand by 7 wickets in the second T20 with the help of opener Lokesh Rahul (57 *). A stunning victory in this match played at Eden Park in Auckland on Sunday led the Indian team to a 2–0 lead in the 5-match series.
New Zealand won the toss and batted first, scoring 132 runs with the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. The Indian team scored 135 for 3 wickets in 17.3 overs and achieved the target with 15 balls remaining. Man of the match Lokesh Rahul scored an unbeaten 57, while Iyer contributed 44 runs. Shivam Dubey (8 *) hit the winning six.
Rahul-Iyer added 86 runs
Lokesh Rahul contributed 57 and Shreyas Iyer 44 runs for India. Both added 86 runs for the third wicket. Rahul hit 3 fours and 2 sixes off 50 balls. At the same time, Iyer faced 33 balls for 44 runs, 1 four and a brilliant 3 sixes.
Rahul’s 11th T20 International Fifty
Lokesh Rahul scored his 11th T20 International half-century. He completed the fifty off 43 balls with fours. Rahul hit the third ball of Hamish Bennett’s over (15th of the innings), then hit the next ball with a four and completed the half-century.
Rohit and Virat returned cheaply
Chasing the target, India did not start well and Tim Southee showed the path to the pavilion on the last ball of the first over to Rohit Sharma. He was caught by Ross Taylor. Rohit also hit 2 fours off 6 balls. On the second ball of the sixth over, captain Virat Kohli (11) was caught by Seifert behind the wicket by Southee. Virat faced 12 balls and hit 1 four. India’s 2 wickets fell to 39 runs.
India got a target of 133 runs
On the basis of a very tight bowling led by Ravindra Jadeja, India stopped New Zealand for 132 runs for 5 wickets. New Zealand got off to a brisk start by Martin Guptill (33 runs off 20 balls) but the Indian bowlers made a good comeback and did not let the Kiwi team take advantage of it with four wickets inside 33 runs. Guptill and Munro added 48 runs for the first wicket.
Good performance of Indian bowlers
Wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert scored an unbeaten 33 off 26 balls to lead New Zealand to a respectable score. Jadeja took 2 wickets for 18 runs in 4 overs while Jasprit Bumrah took one wicket for 21 runs. Mohammed Shami gave only 22 runs in four overs, even though he did not get a wicket. Shardul Thakur (two overs, 21 runs, one wicket) and Shivam Dubey (two overs, 16 runs one wicket) also achieved successes.
Shardul got only 2 overs, robbed 21 runs
Guptill expressed his intentions by hitting two sixes in the first over of Thakur’s innings. When Thakur came to the bowling in the last over of the powerplay to change ends, Guptill hit two consecutive fours. He wanted to make full use of the last ball of the powerplay to send him for six runs but the ball flew into the air and Virat Kohli converted it into a catch at the mid-off and celebrated in his own special style by clenching his fist.
4 wickets fell till 81 runs
New Zealand’s first wicket fell to 48 runs, but soon after that, their score was 81 runs for four wickets. Kohli caught Dubey’s second opener Colin Munro (26 off 25 balls) on the extra cover. Jadeja took the ball in the 11th over and sent Colin de Grandhom (3) to the pavilion and captain Kane Williamson (14) in his successive overs, sending the Kiwi team to the backfoot.
Only 23 runs scored in the last 4 overs.
Seifert smashed a four and a six on Yuzvendra Chahal (33 runs in four overs) but Jadeja, Bumrah and Shami put on stoppage on the runs. New Zealand were able to score only 23 runs in the final four overs, including only one six, which Seifert hit Bumrah. Meanwhile, Kohli also missed the catch of Ross Taylor (18) but Bumrah sent him to the pavilion in his next over. Taylor played 24 balls but did not include a single boundary.