New Zealand vs India 2019: 4 reasons why India lost the first T20I

A confident-looking Indian team walked into the T20I series after winning the ODI series quite comfortably. The Kiwis, on the other hand, were looking to restore the pride of being the home team.

India's stand-in captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. India stepped in with two fast bowling all-rounders - Hardik Pandya and Vijay Shankar. The New Zealand openers gave them a flying start after being asked to bat first. The home team reached 50 runs inside the fifth over itself.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert smashed a 43 ball-84, which included six 6s. Cameos from Munro and Kane Williamson helped them go past 200 runs, ending the innings at 219/6 in their allotted 20 overs.

All the Indian bowlers fell on the expensive side. Chasing a daunting target, India kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. Dhawan and Shankar got a decent start but could not convert them into a big score. In the end, India failed to chase 219 runs, thus continuing India's record of not winning a T20I in New Zealand.

Let's see the 4 reasons why India could not win the first T20I:

#1 Amazing start by Kiwi openers

T20I cricket is all about momentum. Seifert opened the innings with Munro in the absence of Martin Guptill. It turned out to be a blockbuster pair for the home side as they gave the exact start which was required.

They reached 54 runs in five overs and smashed both the opening bowlers across the park. India's front line bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar also could not control the opening burst of the Kiwi openers. Seifert went on to score his maiden T20I fifty. The pair added 86 runs for the first wicket in just 8.1 overs. Kane Williamson carried on the momentum with a quickfire 34 runs.