India had an inauspicious start to their T20I sojourn against New Zealand, as they were handed their worst ever T20I defeat by 80 runs. The Westpac Stadium in Wellington hosted the first T20I of the three-match series and the hosts celebrated their New Zealand Day in style.
Rohit Sharma erroneously chose to bowl first after winning the toss and the opening combo of Tim Seifert and Colin Munro made the Indian bowling pay with 66 runs in 6 overs. Seifert top-scored with 84 runs and with contributions from Munro, Williamson, and Taylor, Kiwis put up 219/6 in 20 overs.
Hardik Pandya picked two wickets for India but gave 51 runs away. The two spinners in Chahal and Krunal picked up a wicket each and had economies under 10 runs per over.
The Indian chase never got going despite some showing by Dhawan (29), Shankar (27), Krunal (20) and MS Dhoni (39). Once the New Zealanders picked up early wickets, the ever-rising run rate proved to be the doom of the Indian team, as they were handed their worst ever T20I defeat by 80 runs, as the Indian team got out for 139 runs.
During the post-match presentation, Tim Seifert was named the Man of the Match and he said, “It was a great way to start the series and the boys are really happy. It feels great to go up the order, look at the first two overs and then go from there and put pressure on the bowlers. I have been selected for a reason and it feels nice to have backed my ability.”
Indian captain Rohit Sharma admitted to being outplayed and said, “It was a tough game. We were outplayed in all three departments. We didn't start well and we knew that 200 wasn't going to be an easy chase although the grounds are small here. But we kept losing wickets and that threw us off. We have chased such targets in the past and that is why we played with eight batsmen, but we didn't have small partnerships and that made it tough while chasing such a big target. But New Zealand though played well, they had partnerships that allowed them to get such a big score.”
Talking about the next T20I in Auckland, Rohit said, “We need to go to Auckland, assess at the conditions and take it forward. As a team, we have been good at chasing down targets which is why we play with eight batsmen. We believe that whatever the target is in front of us we can chase it down, but we just couldn't do it tonight.”
Winning skipper Kane Williamson said, “Fantastic performance all around, everyone rose and it was one of those complete performances that you search for. But it has finished now, we move on in a day's time and we have another game. The top-order were superb and we built partnerships that helped us. Seifert, Munro was outstanding. We know it will be different in a couple of days time and we need to learn from our bits and pieces and move on. Some really good experiences for the boys, some of the short contributions are of great importance. Daryll bowled really well and played a good cameo down the order.”
Calling this win a ‘complete performance’, Williamson further said,” We had the runs on the board, but the bowling and fielding too were of high standard. A complete performance that doesn't happen every day and hope we can keep the momentum through the series has set the tone. The White Ferns game was a fantastic one, it ebbed and flowed all through. We have copied each other through the series and hopefully, they can beat them in the next game and we'll carry it forward.”
(Cricbuzz.com inputs)
