New Zealand vs India 2020: Jasprit Bumrah one of the best death bowlers in the world, reckons Martin Guptill
India won the second T20I against New Zealand and a lot of credit for that goes to the Indian bowlers, who managed to restrict New Zealand to just 132 on a small ground like Eden Park. Martin Guptill praised Jasprit Bumrah and felt that it was really difficult to pick his variations, due to which it was difficult to put bat to ball, let alone hitting the ball for a boundary.
"I thought maybe 170 would have been alright. But obviously, we were way off. India bowled very well tonight and bowled as straight as possible. There were a lot of dot balls tonight and that impacted our innings," Guptill was quoted as saying.
"Lots of swing and misses. We were trying but we were facing one of the best death bowlers in the world (Jasprit Bumrah). It is tough to get him away at the end," he added.
New Zealand had got off to a cautious start, scoring 48 runs without losing any wickets in the powerplay. But the Indian bowlers were too good in their variations on a slowish pitch, restricting New Zealand and setting themselves a target of 133.
"It was a slightly different wicket. Earlier on, it was coming nicely. Colin (Munro) and I were off to a reasonable start. We lost momentum thereafter the sixth over, and we had to sort of rebuild from there," Guptill asserted.
India had lost two big wickets in the form of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and were 40-2. The game could have gone either way with one more wicket. But, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer showed great application in negotiating the spinners and attacked the quick bowlers. The duo put up 86 runs for the third wicket, helping India take a 2-0 lead in the series.
"We probably knew we were light on runs. But we had to try and defend that, and get early wickets upfront. Though the bowlers did well in the front six overs, we needed more wickets after Virat got out. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul batted very well and we were not able to break that partnership," stated Guptill.