India restore parity against New Zealand in a low-scoring thriller

With all the talks of India’s upcoming tour against Australia doing those hefty rounds, especially with the seasoned Australian campaigners repeatedly warning Cummins and his men of the inexplicable vortex of turn that the Indian pitches have to offer, yesterday’s encounter between India and New Zealand stayed witness to one such surface where four Indian spinners reigned supreme to leave the visitors reeling.

In what was a must-win battle for the Indians, New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first on a surface that didn’t really offer much promise to the batters at the first glimpse. Despite a roaring start from Finn Allen, he was shortly on his way back to the pavilion as Yuzvendra Chahal left the former twisted in a knot of his own where the cherry flicked off his pads and eventually went onto click his timbre.

Despite Devon Conway looking decent in his initial approach, there wasn’t much that he could have done as Washington Sundar skidded past his defences to produce a mishit as the ball rattled his gloves and was comfortably pouched by Ishan Kishan.

With the two openers gone, New Zealand seemed a lot more vulnerable to spin and somehow their incessant urge to try out something fancy didn’t yield any handsome dividends either as Deepak Hooda’s unorthodox spin left their best hope in the center Glenn Phillips for a goner.

Daryl Mitchell, the man who proved to be the pivotal point for the Kiwis in the preceding fixture was stunned by an absolute ripper from Kuldeep Yadav as the visitors started to tremble. Despite a prolonged bout of resistance from Mitchell Santner, the Indians were far too superior and never let the Kiwis off the leash, restricting them to their lowest score in T20I cricket against the Men in Blue.

Chasing 100 to win, India got off to a decent start but the joys were short-lived for the Men in Blue as Shubman Gill was once again left undone by additional bounce while Ishan Kishan was a victim of poor communication in the center with Rahul Tripathi. Rahul Tripathi’s woes continued with the bat, despite India slowly tiptoeing their way towards restoring parity in the series.

In another glaring mix-up, Washington Sundar sacrificed his wicket in order to keep the Indian vice-captain alive in the center, also paving way for the arrival of the Indian skipper. The duo of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, two of India’s most seasoned campaigners in the side, came together with brick and mortar in order to plug the leaks.

The partnership took a while to see off any possible peril on the horizon but ensured the fact that no further harm befell the Indian chase with Suryakumar Yadav calmly steering the Indian ship to safety. All eyes would now shift to the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday as the series finale awaits from Ahmedabad.