New Zealand cricket team is an ardent need of a win in the ongoing 2nd T20I of the 3-match series against India in Rajkot. The visitors are already trailing by 0-1 in the series as they lost the 1st T20I in Delhi by 53 runs.
After winning the toss, the Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson elected to bat first and their openers Collin Munro and Martin Guptill didn’t disappoint by putting a 100+ run opening partnership with Munro scoring his 2nd T20I century as well.
Munro became the 4th T20I batsman to score 2 T20I centuries and the first one to do so in a calendar year.
In the 5th over of the match which was bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal, Guptill smashed 17 runs in the over, but Chahal took the revenge by dismissing him in the 12th over of the match.
Mohammad Siraj made a debut in the match and got a priced scalp of Williamson in the 15th over of the match. However, Indian spinner went for a lot of runs in the match as the wicket was pretty flat and dry and was zero assistance for the bowlers.
The Kiwi batsmen took the advantage of the conditions and smashed the Indian bowlers all over the park, they have been pretty lucky as well with some edges going down to a boundary and 2 dropped catches of Munro.
However, the hosts did a decent job to restrict the Blackcaps as they gave away just 22 runs in last 3 overs and once against it was the duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. The visitors have managed to score as many as 196 for 6, but they were looking to go beyond one point of time as they had 8 wickets in hand.
Considering the only T20I played at this venue where India chased down 202 against Australia in 2013, the target of 197 runs looks chaseable.
Brief scores: New Zealand – 196/2 (C Munro: 109 (58), M Guptill: 45(41), Y Chahal – 1/36)
