New Zealand dominated their way through to a virtual knock-out game versus India in the Super 12 of the T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai on Sunday. The Kiwis were at their very best against an indifferent looking Indian side and won by eight wickets with more than five overs left in the game.
A sense of unclarity and hesitancy in India’s approach, exploited to great effect by some disciplined NZ bowling, led to Virat Kohli and company’s downfall as they succumbed in another of their Group 2 fixture batting first.
The Indian side had a depressing first half where they managed to post only 110/7 in their 20 overs. In an innings that never really picked up the gear from the start till the end, Kohli’s men failed to put any pressure back on the opposition.
It began with a questionable move to reshuffle the batting unit. With No.4 Suryakumar Yadav injured, Kohli himself swapped places with him and pushed his replacement Ishan Kishan to the top of the order. However, when it was felt that Kishan would open with Rohit Sharma, the Indian team decided to drop their vice-captain down to No.3 and kept KL Rahul at the top.
The idea was to be aggressive up front and let the two senior men take down the spinners in the middle-order. But that also meant taking a big risk, since New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi (2/17) and Mitchell Santner (0/15) were negative match-ups for both Rohit and Kohli from the Indian point of view.
And to pile on their misery, neither Ishan (4) nor Rahul (16) got going with the bat. India for once looked nervous in the way they played their strokes and lost wickets in the process. Rohit and Kohli could muster innings of only 14 off 14 and 9 off 17, respectively, before getting out caught in the deep.
Rishabh Pant, who many felt should’ve been batting in between the Kohli-Rohit duo so as to counter the Kiwi spinners who turned the ball into the left-hander, had to now play a waiting game because his team were 40/3 when he walked in and later 48/4 upon Kohli’s wicket.
Having to play a touch out of character, Pant stuttered his way to a 12-ball 18 before being out bowled by Adam Milne (1/30). As it happened to them in the game versus Pakistan, both Hardik Pandya (23) and Ravindra Jadeja (26*) struggled for any flow and rhythm at the start of their innings.
Apart from the spinners, Trent Boult was the start of the show for the Kiwis, taking 3/20 off his four overs. His experienced pace partner Tim Southee (1/26) also ended with respectable figures.
With the match nearly in their bag in the first half itself, the Kiwis approached the run-chase quite freely and mixed a sense of caution with aggression to reach the winning post in 14.3 overs only.
Daryl Mitchell (49) and captain Kane Williamson (33*) batted superbly in the second half where they had no pressure of the asking rate but still looked mindful of the NRR situation for the tournament.
Mitchell, and earlier on his opening partner Martin Guptill (20), focused on providing their side a quickfire start before Guptill got out, and Mitchell and Williamson steered their side towards the finish line. Mitchell missed out on a deserved fifty. Williamson had Devon Conway (2*) for company when the game finished.
Among Indian bowlers, only Jasprit Bumrah (2/19) looked in any sort of control and grip over the Kiwi batters when he bowled.
Brief scores
India 110/7 in 20 overs (Jadeja 26*; Boult 3/20, Sodhi 2/17) lost to New Zealand 111/2 in 14.3 overs (Mitchell 49, Williamson 33*; Bumrah 2/19) by 8 wickets
