1st T20 India vs New Zealand, clumsy New Zealand gain Confidence by winning the T20I Series Opener to stay in Front
After a poor show in the ODI series, New Zealand entered into the T20I series with the hope to put some good effort together to challenge the strong Indian Team. And they were able to do it on a pitch that offered a lot of assistance to the spin bowlers. In this first crucial game, New Zealand was sent to bat first by the Indian captain Hardik Pandya. With significant chances of having dew in the 2nd innings, it looked like a good decision by Hardik. New Zealand had a good early start with a quick opening stand of 43 when they lost Fin Allen in the 5th over after making a quick 35 (23).
David Conway again shows his guts with the bat with his magnificent 52 on 35 balls. New Zealand needed someone from the middle or lower order to capitalize on this early start to put up a challenging total on the board. Daryl Mitchel stood up and showed his talent with the bat by scoring a wonderful 59 in just 30 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes. The New Zealand team ended at 176/6 in their allotted 20 overs in 1st T20 India vs New Zealand. It was a par score on this pitch as due was most likely to disturb the rhythm of the bowlers. However, it was lucky innings for New Zealand as their spinners got better assistance from the pitch as compared to the first innings.
The match was early set up by the spinners and India was in disarray in the 4th over as they had lost 3 wickets for just 15 runs. Now, a nominal target was looking like a huge one to go through. Sky came up with his own style of batting but only could manage 47 (34). Pandya and Sundar gave some hope to the Indian team to chase this target, but all hopes were stopped by New Zealand bowlers as they continue to take wickets at regular intervals. 5 Indian wickets were shared between Santner, Bracewell, and Sodhi. Mitchel Santner was the pick of the bowlers for his 11/2 in 4 overs with 1 maiden. The clinical first-game win has given confidence back to the New Zealand dressing room, and now they are leading the series 1-0. They can surely give it a try to wrap up the series in the next match.