The Indian Cricket Team registered their highest successful run chase, defeating New Zealand in the first India vs New Zealand T20I of this five-match series. But what are the three reasons behind the Men in Blue’s victory in this run-fest?
The India vs New Zealand 1st T20I was played at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. The Indians won the toss and decided to bowl first on this flat track. There was barely any seam for pacers, and that too in the first couple of overs. As for the spinners, no support.
The Kiwis got off to a solid start, making 65 runs in the powerplay and losing no wickets. The fast bowlers, which included a returning Bhuvneshwar Kumar, failed to find correct lines and lengths and were thus punished for it.
And despite losing regular wickets, New Zealand kept chugging along, with all their batters coming in with only one target in mind: send the ball beyond the boundary rope.
Glenn Phillips was the home team’s best performer of the night. It was on the back of his 82 off 40 that New Zealand managed to reach a mammoth total of 225 runs in 20 overs.
In response, the Indian opening duo gave India a rapid start. However, with multiple wickets falling towards the middle of the innings, it was left to the middle order to finish the game, which they did, making 230 runs in 19.4 overs and winning the match. This is the highest successful run chase by the Indian Cricket Team in men’s T20Is.
Here, we will look at the 3 reasons India beat New Zealand in the India vs New Zealand 1st T20I –
India vs New Zealand: 3 Reasons India Beat New Zealand In The 1st T20
3) A Blistering Start By the Indian Openers
Chasing a 226-run target, India needed to go guns out right from the get-go, and that is exactly what the opening duo of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma did.
New Zealand used three different bowlers in the first three overs. Matt Henry’s opening over went for 11 runs, followed by Adam Milne conceding nine and Lockie Ferguson giving up a whopping 22, and we were off to the races.
Milne then bowled a 26-run over, followed by Henry giving up 14 in the fifth, and just like that, the Indian openers had made 82 runs in the first five overs.
Sanju Samson hit a four and a six at the start of the final powerplay overs and reached his 50 in just 23 balls. And despite Abhishek Sharma being dismissed on the fifth ball of the over, India were already cruising at 93/1 in 5.5 overs. Sharma, before getting out, had scored 29 runs in just 12 balls.
Over the next few overs, the innings slowed down a lot, and by the end of the ninth over, Sanju Samson had been bowled by opposition captain Mitchell Santner for 67 off 33. Despite both openers getting out in the first nine overs of a massive run chase, the score at this point was 115/2, and the Men in Blue were well on their way to chasing this target down.
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2) A Textbook Run Chase in Unusual Circumstances
After a fiery start by the Indian batters, the chase fell off the tracks for a bit in the middle overs. An on-song Sanju Samson got out in the ninth over, soon followed by Tilak Varma, who only made six off 11 after a struggling time at the crease.
But this was not the end of the fall of wickets, as Ishan Kishan, who has been in excellent form for the Indian T20I team this year, was dismissed by Santnr in the 11th over for just one run. With that, India had gone from 93/0 in the sixth over to 122/4 in the 11th, a collapse if there was one.
This left Axar Patel and captain Shreyas Iyer on strike. And while Axar hit a couple of boundaries here and there in the next few overs, Shreyas was taking his time to get settled in.
By the end of the 13th over, the score was 146/4. Patel was batting at 19 off nine, while Iyer had made a run-a-ball 10. But more crucially, the run rate had, for the first time in this innings since the first two overs, fallen below the required rate. At this point, India needed 80 runs in 42 deliveries.
At this point, the Indians commenced the catch-up part of the chase to get ahead of their required rate and divert the pressure, exactly what a team in this situation must focus on.
The 14th over by Matt Henry went for 20 runs, bringing the Men in Blue ahead in the run rate once again. But the next over would bring yet another stumbling block for this chase. Not only was the 15th over bowled by Lockie Ferguson for five runs, but also Axar Patel lost his wicket for 24 off 14.
Then the 16th over by Nathan Smith saw only seven runs conceded, and India was right back to falling behind the required rate. This is where the defending T20 World Champions found a new hero with the bat, all-rounder Naman Dhir, who, along with captain Iyer, made 19 runs in the 17th over.
With 29 runs required in the last three overs, this game was India’s to lose. 13 runs came in the 18th over, and now the target was 16 runs away with 12 balls remaining. And while eight runs came in the 19th over, Shreyas Iyer fell to Milne at the start of the over after scoring 41 off 28.
Naman Dhir finished things off in style with a four and a six in the final over to finish the game with four wickets and two balls to spare. Dhir’s 42 off 15 were instrumental in his team’s triumph in India vs New Zealand 1st T20I.
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1) What You Can Do, We Can Do Worse
Let’s be honest here: this match was not the shining example of exemplary cricket one would expect from two of the best teams in world cricket. A massive scoreline like this match can often be explained away by “the pitch being flat.” But what it does not tell you is how ordinary both teams were at bowling and fielding today.
The Indian bowlers bowled poor lines and lengths. And while they did not get any support from the pitch, regularly bowling at full lengths is never a good idea, especially on a flat track.
But then, the Kiwi bowlers came in and one-upped the Indians, making it even easier for batters to batter them six ways to Sunday. They also gave away 17 extras.
One department where New Zealand did better than the Indian Cricket Team was their spin bowling. Axar Patel was the only Indian spinner who bowled in this match. He kept the ball short and paid for it, conceding 51 runs in four overs and taking Finn Allen’s wicket, which was mostly the batter’s fault.
On the other hand, the BlackCaps had eight overs of spin by Michael Bracewell and skipper Mitchell Santner. The two gave up 76 runs in eight overs and took two wickets each and were the primary force behind India’s struggle in the middle overs.
This brings us to the part where the two teams put up their worst performance: the fielding. The Men in Blue gave up multiple runs and boundaries by being sloppy in the field. Abhishek Sharma even dropped a sitter, letting Daryl Mitchell go with his wicket in hand.
But where India was poor in the field, New Zealand, otherwise known for their exceptional fielding, was horrendous.
The Kiwis dropped four catches in this match. And while a couple of them would have been exceptional if caught, there were a couple of easy chances there as well.
Not only that, but New Zealand also gave up several boundaries that should otherwise have been safe. Even Glenn Phillips, one of the best fielders in world cricket, was fairly mediocre in the field today.
While India performed poorly with the ball and in the field today, the Kiwis did worse in both departments. This was, frankly, the only difference between the two teams today and why Mitchell Santner’s men lost the India vs New Zealand 1st T20I.
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