With the magic of spinners, India stopped New Zealand for 99 runs for eight wickets in the second T20 International cricket match here on Sunday. Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal (1/4), Deepak Hooda (1/17), Washington Sundar (1/17) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/17) shared figures of 4/55 in 13 overs. Took wickets. India bowled out their specialist fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh (2/7) and Shivam Mavi only in the last three overs.
Captain Mitchell Santner top-scored with 19 not out for New Zealand as the team failed to surpass their previous lowest score in this format against India. The dominance of the bowlers can be gauged from the fact that only six fours were hit in the entire innings of the visiting team. Electing to bat after winning the toss, New Zealand got off to a poor start, losing both openers Finn Allen (11) and Devon Conway (11) for just 28 runs in the fifth over.
In the fourth over, while trying to reverse sweep leg-spinner Chahal, Allen missed and the ball hit his back foot and went into the wickets. In the next over, in an attempt to play a reverse sweep off Washington’s ball, Conway handed a simple catch to wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan. New Zealand scored 33 runs for two wickets in the power play. Captain Hardik Pandya (1 for 25) handed the ball to part-time spinner Hooda in the next over and Glenn Phillips (05) was also bowled in an attempt to reverse sweep his off-spin ball.
Mark Chapman (14) and Daryl Mitchell (08) held the wicket for some time but Kuldeep Yadav bowled Mitchell on the last ball of the 10th over to reduce New Zealand’s score to 48 for four. In the 13th over of the innings, Chapman also reverse-swept Hooda’s ball which reached Kuldeep at short third man. Chapman stepped forward to take the run and was easily run out by Ishan on Kuldeep’s throw. Michael Bracewell (14) and Santner shared the second best partnership of 20 runs for the sixth wicket. Pandya broke the partnership in the 17th over by getting Bracewell caught by Arshdeep at fine leg. Arshdeep sent Ish Sodhi (01) and Lockie Ferguson (00) to the pavilion in the next over.
