Kishan slammed 76 off 32 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes in the second T20I against New Zealand.
Ishan Kishan starred with the bat in India’s dominant seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the second T20I at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Raipur on Friday (January 23).
Batting at No. 3, the southpaw slammed 76 off 32 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes. He shared 122-run stand for the third wicket with skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who remained unbeaten on 82 off 37 balls to take the hosts over the finishing line with 28 deliveries to spare in the chase of 209.
Kishan, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award, stated that he didn’t have anything special during lunch when quizzed on a lighter note.
“Nothing special for lunch, I just had normal food. I was focusing more on what I had to do today and being in a very good headspace for this game,” Kishan said in the post-match interview.
“Sometimes you understand that you’re batting well. You just have to be in a good headspace and try to watch the ball and play your good shots," he added.
India lost both openers, Sanju Samson (6) and Abhishek Sharma (0), early on in the innings before Ishan and Surya joined forces to not only steady the ship but put the Men in Blue in driver’s seat.
Reflecting on his partnership with the captain, Kishan said: “We were looking not to take risks, not to go cross-batted, but I was still looking to score as many runs as possible in the powerplay. At the end of the day, when you’re chasing a 200-plus total, you have to get good runs in the powerplay."
He further remarked, “It depends on how you’re batting. I felt very good in the middle. I was able to connect the ball from ball one, so I backed myself. I had that feeling that if I just played good shots, I could make it happen for the team."
Kishan attributed his success on international return to purple patch in domestic cricket as the swashbuckling left-hander demonstrated his striking prowess against the Kiwis.
“I was just looking to score runs in domestic cricket. Sometimes it’s important to do it for yourself, to answer your own questions about how you’re batting and whether you’re capable of playing for India."
“That’s why it was important for me to play domestic cricket and get runs. The good part was that we won the trophy as well, and I carried that confidence here."
“So it was a pretty good day for me. I asked myself one question (his comeback) – can I do it again or not? And I had a very clear answer."
“I felt I could bat through the innings and play good shots. I just needed to get runs somewhere to answer my questions. Even if I got out, I just wanted to play good cricket, that was it,” he concluded.