India vs New Zealand, ICC World T20 2016: Match Highlights
Yesterday's opening match of ICC World T20 2016 at Nagpur was a forgettable outing for the ‘Men in Blue’ and their 1.3 billion supporters from across the globe. Indians had a lot of expectation going into the match after their cricket side ended the Asia Cup on a high winning the final match of the tournament against Bangladesh.
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After the New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson had won the toss, he decided to have a go with the bat.
The Kiwis had a forgetful batting performance against Team India
Initially, the pitch seemed to be a batting friendly one, especially after Martin Guptill started the Super 10 stage of this year's World T20 with a bang- hitting a six off the very first delivery by Ravichandran Ashwin. However, the Indian offspinner soon got one back for the team dismissing the Kiwi batsmen with an LBW appeal.
Although the umpire took a considerable amount of time before putting his finger up, the replays suggested that the ball would have missed the stumps.
Colin Munro was the next batsman to depart with the scoreboard showing just 13 runs next to Team New Zealand. He perished off an Ashish Nehra delivery in the second over after reverse sweeping an Ashwin ball for a six.
The Kiwi captain Kane Williamson also had a mediocre outing with the bat as he could manage just eight runs off 16 balls with a passable strike rate of 50.
Corey Anderson, however, was brilliant in the first innings although he scored 34 runs off 42 deliveries. But most importantly, he played the role of a sheet anchor partnering up with Williamson and Ross Taylor when the Indians looked to run away with the match.
Team India's Jasprit Bumrah and Suresh Raina were exceptional with the ball as they finished with figures of 4-0-15-1 and 4-0-16-1 respectively.
The 'Men in Blue’ premium spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin was a bit expensive as he signed off with an economy rate 8.00.
Ravindra Jadeja was also quite decent with the ball as he managed to pick up the wicket of a set Mitchell Santner giving away merely 26 runs in his allotted four overs.
India's dismal batting performance was an unexpected one
The script looked to be set for the Indians to take the centre stage yet again as the Kiwis could only manage a paultry total of 126/7 in their allotted 20 overs. Shikhar Dhawan scored 60 runs off 44 balls in the Asia Cup final against Bangladesh and all eyes were on him and Rohit Sharma to give India a solid start.
However, Shikhar Dhawan returned to the pavilion in the fifth ball of the second innings as Nathan McCullum trapped him for an LBW, plump in front of the stumps. The New Zealand spinner bowled brilliantly throughout the innings with a final bowling figure of 3-0-15-2.
Apart from Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni aside, there is not much talk about the rest of the Indian batting lineup, to be honest.
The likes of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja could collectively manage merely 11 runs.
The New Zealand spinners, however, were brilliant with the ball. Mitchell Santner ended his spell with an impressive figure of 4-0-11-4 picking up a number of valuable Indian wickets including that of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni.
Another Kiwi leg spinner of Indian-origin, Ish Sodhi picked up the priced scalps of Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin in his allotted 4 overs to silence the crowd at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
Virat Kohli continued his fine form with the bat, scoring 23 runs off 27 deliveries, hitting a couple of boundaries in the process. However, he got dismissed in the very first delivery of Ish Sodhi in the 9th over of the innings with 39 runs on the board.
‘Captain Cool’ MS Dhoni, too, tried his best to ensure yet another Indian victory. Although he failed to steer Team India to an opening match victory, he scored 30 runs off 30 balls and even stepped out to hit a huge six off a Santner delivery.
After the dismissal of the Indian skipper, it was just a matter of time as India could only post 79 runs on the scoreboard losing the opening match of the ICC World T20 to the Kiwis by 47 runs.