India beat New Zealand by 6 wickets in the last over with Suryakumar Yadav’s super innings on a pitch that has become a good match for spinners to level the series 1-1.
The second T20 match between India and New Zealand in Lucknow was interesting. The match was thrilling among thousands of spectators sitting in the stadium. India beat New Zealand by 6 wickets in the last over with Suryakumar Yadav’s super innings on a pitch that has become a good match for spinners to level the series 1-1.
The target of just 100 runs looked small but Team India fought hard. Like the previous T20 matches, this time too the opening pair of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan failed to impress. Gill was dismissed first, but Ishan was more disappointing as he scored just 19 off 32 balls. He also ran out due to carelessness. Like the Indian spinners, the New Zealand spinners also made it difficult for the batsmen to score runs.
India lost the wicket of Rahul Tripathi in the 11th over. By then the score was 50 runs. Suryakumar bloodied the game with his aggressiveness at the crease. Captain Hardik Pandya also supported him and rained runs. Needed 6 runs off the last 6 balls, but then turned into 3 runs off 2 balls. In this entire innings, Surya scored 26 runs off 31 balls and remained unbeaten. He saved the team from losing the series by sharing an unbeaten 31-run partnership with captain Hardik.
Before this match at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, only 5 T20 matches were played. In these five matches, only the team that batted first won because of rain of runs. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to bat. However, the Indian spinners wreaked havoc and were restricted to a low score in no time. Team India played brilliantly in this match with four spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal started picking up wickets, followed by Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav as well as Deepak Hooda. Till the 10th over, New Zealand scored only 48 runs and lost 4 wickets. New Zealand were hoping for a lot of runs in the last 10 overs, but the spinners, medium pace duo Hardik Pandya-Arshdeep Singh dashed those hopes. The Kiwi team could only manage 99 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.