Martin Guptill brought the sluggish Auckland surface for the second T20I under scanner after New Zealand managed a total of only 132/5 in the first half and it took India as many as 17.3 overs despite the short boundary dimensions to chase the score down and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series this Sunday (January 26). 

"We certainly felt that the pitch was getting slower and slower when we were batting," Guptill, who top-scored with a 20-ball 33 when the deck played the truest in the powerplay earlier on, told reporters after the defeat. "It got harder and harder to bat as the game progressed. We needed one of the top three-four to bat majority of the innings. We weren’t able to get partnerships to add up the total."

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Just the previous game, on the same venue, Black Caps' mammoth 203 wasn't good enough. "It was a slightly different wicket," Guptill said. "Earlier on, it was coming nicely. Colin (Munro) and I were off to a reasonable start. We lost momentum thereafter the sixth over, and we had to sort of rebuild from there."

"We probably knew we were light on runs. But we had to try and defend that, and get early wickets upfront. Thought the bowlers did well in the front six overs, we needed more wickets after Virat got out. Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul batted very well and we were not able to break that partnership."

Munro and Guptill put on a 48-run opening stand but thereafter, it was a dominating bowling display by India. "Our role in the team is to be aggressive and we go out there to do that," the right-hander said. "One of us would have been good to bat 15 overs to set the innings up and have guys bat around us. It was not supposed to be today and we have time to try to do that in the next game and do a better performance."

"I thought maybe 170 would have been alright. But obviously, we were way off. India bowled very well tonight and bowled as straight as possible. There were a lot of dot balls tonight and that impacted our innings."

Jasprit Bumrah was all class in the death overs again. "Lot of swing and misses. We were trying but we were facing one of the best death bowlers in the world (Jasprit Bumrah). It is tough to get him away at the end," Guptill acknowledged. 

KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer showed great maturity and calculative mindset in pacing the run-chase really well. "They played very well, as hard as they did the other night," Guptill said. "They built partnerships to put pressure on us. We were not able to do that and got out-batted tonight. India has got some great players and match winners. It is hard for the boys to go out there and try their best. Sometimes you come up short."

"It’s just one of those grounds where it is very hard to defend. We have seen it in a number of games," he added. "We got 240 versus Australia and we lost. It is just hard to defend runs on here and we bat first a lot here. We put up totals a lot of the days and other days we might have done it, but on this particular day we were not able to pull through."

(Inputs from PTI)