New Zealand halts India’s two and half year record in the first T20I
India was flying high after defeating New Zealand in their backyard 4-1 in ODIs, a scoreline which no one could have predicted. They were set to face the black caps for 2 T20Is, first of which took place on Wednesday at Wellington. India fielded a Kohli and Bumrah less side and bets were high on India to thump the New Zealand side, however, Kiwis made an amazing comeback that literally stunned the Indian cricket fraternity.
The stand-in captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first. Colin Munro and Tim Seifert gave a blistering start to the Kiwis. Seifert, in particular, had no mercy for Indian bowlers as he smashed 84 runs off just 43 balls which included 7 fours and 6 sixes. With handy contribution from other batsmen as well, New Zealand posted a mammoth 219/6 in their 20 overs.
India in reply couldn’t get going as New Zealand picked up regular wickets that dented the chase. With Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni, and Krunal Pandya being the only batsmen to reach double-digit score, India was bowled out for 139 runs in 19.2 overs, thus, losing by a huge margin of 80 runs, maximum margin since 2010.
India made some infamous records too with that defeat, one among them was New Zealand halting India’s two and half year record of not conceding more than 200 runs in T20Is. The last time when India conceded more than 200 runs in T20I was in 2016 against Windies.
Evin Lewis and Johnson Charles wreaked havoc on Indian bowlers as they scored 100 and 79 runs respectively. India came too close to win the match before losing by the smallest of the margin of 1 run. Since then, India has been highly tidy in T20Is as none of the other opponents could cross the 200-run mark against them.
England came the closest when they scored 198 last year. Thus, with New Zealand scoring 219 in the first T20I, the two and half year record is halted. Now, it will be interesting to see how the Indian bowlers respond in the second T20I tomorrow after being hammered in the 1st T20I by the Kiwis.