T20 World Cup 2021: "I'm shocked by the manner in which India played" - Inzamam-ul-Haq
Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq expressed his surprise over India's performance against New Zealand yesterday (October 31). The Men In Blue's misery against the Blackcaps in ICC events prolonged last night. Their chances of making it into the semifinals took a serious hit with a heavy 8-wicket loss in Dubai.
Not the result we wanted, but we will look to bounce back in the matches ahead.
#TeamIndia #T20WorldCup #INDvNZ https://t.co/A61JjoITe1
Inzamam claimed that the contest between India and New Zealand was one of the biggest ones in the tournament. He failed to understand how India stitched together such a poor performance right from the word go. While speaking on his YouTube channel, Inzamam said:
"This match was the biggest one after India and Pakistan. Even bigger than Australia vs England. I'm shocked by the manner in which India played. They were absolutely demoralized. I could not understand how such a big team took so much pressure."
India were never in the contest, with the new-look top-order struggling in the powerplay and subsequent wickets falling at regular intervals. New Zealand made easy work of the paltry 111 run target with more than 5 overs to spare.
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The Indian batsmen were not even able to score singles off the spinners: Inzamam
Inzamam failed to understand how the Indians were not able to score more runs off the spinners. Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi ran a tight ship and claimed combined figures of 8-0-32-2. The leg-spinner was awarded man of the match for his display that included the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Inzamam added:
"These NZ spinners are good, but not world-class. The Indian batsmen were not even able to score singles off them. Kohli's strength is playing spin and even he was not able to get a single."
End of powerplay!
#TeamIndia move to 35/2, with @ImRo45 & captain @imVkohli in the middle.
#T20WorldCup #INDvNZ
Follow the match ▶️ bit.ly/IndvNZ-T20WC https://t.co/l9mKuklneQ
The Indian batsmen never got the scoreboard ticking. Boundaries and strike rotations were hard to come by in the middle overs, leaving India in a tough spot. India need to win all of their remaining fixtures and hope for a few other fixtures to go their way to secure a spot in the semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2021.