After facing a demoralizing 1-4 loss in the ODI series against Team India, New Zealand will be looking forward to proving their worth against their formidable opponents in the T20I rubber. In the first T20I of the series in Wellington, the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma decided to bowl first and his bowlers didn’t have a great start as the Kiwi openers smacked them all -over the park and completed their tally of 20 overs with a score of 219/6. The Indian team failed to chase down the target of 220 as they lost the game by a huge margin of 80 runs.
This is India’s biggest loss in a T20I cricket in terms of the number of runs margin. Furthermore, New Zealand continues its domination against India in the shortest format of the game. This was New Zealand’s seventh win against Men in Blue in T20 Cricket.
The Indian bowlers had a horrifying start as they conceded as many as 66 runs in the first six overs as Colin Munro (34) and Tim Seifert (84) came up with all guns blazing and unsettled the Indian bowlers. The Kiwis opening pair scored 86 runs for the opening stand to give a fine platform to their side. After Munro’s dismissal in the 9th over, Seifert continued to attack and put on a carnage on the Indian bowlers.
WATCH – Khaleel Ahmed Gets The Priced Wicket Of Tim Seifert
Seifert added 48 runs with his skipper Kane Williamson. In fact, India could have got rid of Williamson when he was on 34. However, Seifert scored a quickfire knock of 84 runs from 43 balls with the help of seven fours and half-a-dozen sixes. He was able to clear the boundary ropes on three occasions.
Meanwhile, Daryl Mitchell didn’t have an ideal debut as he was dismissed for eight runs. Dinesh Karthik, who had bungled a catch earlier, was able to take an unbelievable catch at the boundary ropes. Karthik jumped up to bag the catch, got rid of the ball to fall over the ropes with the momentum and then came back to complete the catch. Later in the game, Ross Taylor and Scott Kuggeleijn provided the finishing touches to the New Zealand innings as their side finish at 219-6.
The Indian bowlers were on the expensive side. Khaleel Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 48 and 47 runs respectively in their four overs quota. Furthermore, Hardik Pandya gave away 51 runs in his allotted four overs combined most by a bowler in T20Is.
WATCH – Dinesh Karthik Takes A Stunner At The Boundary Line
Coming into the chase, Indian lost Rohit early in the 3rd over but before that Dhawan smacked 16 runs in the 2nd over the innings. However, Lockie Ferguson made got the wicket of Dhawan in the 6th over and India was reeling at 51/2. Surprisingly, Vijay Shankar was promoted to number three. He was able to time the ball with perfection but India could not get going as they keep losing wickets in regular intervals.
Rishabh Pant was done by Mitchell Santner’s straight ball when he went for the big shot. The asking rate was going up and the Indian batsmen had to take their risks. Dinesh Karthik went for the sweep shot but Tim Southee took a good catch while diving to his right as the visitors were reduced to 72/5 in the 11th over. Then came Hardik, who was dismissed in the same over as sh Sodhi dragged the ball wide towards the off-stump and Pandya went for the big shot. Thus, India was left tottering at 77-6 with MS Dhoni and Krunal Pandya left with too much to do.
WATCH – Dhawan Cleaned-up By Ferguson’s 150+ Delivery
The loss was inevitable after that and the Indian team was bundled out for 139 to lose the match by a big margin of 80 runs.
Here are some of the reactions on Twitter after India’s loss:
New Zealand send India to their biggest T20I defeat!
The visitors are bowled out for 139 in Wellington after Tim Seifert's 84 helped set up a crushing 80 run win for the Blackcaps!#NZviND scorecard ➡️ https://t.co/TTixTOEQaM pic.twitter.com/W8gh3ufYlg
— ICC (@ICC) February 6, 2019
First time India conceded 200+ total in T20Is in 2.5 years.
Pakistan is now the only team not to have conceded 200+ total in this period among the full member teams. #NZvInd
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) February 6, 2019
Biggest defeats for India in T20Is (by runs):
80 vs NZ, Wellington, 2019
49 vs Aus, Bridgetown, 2010
46 vs NZ, Nagpur, 2016
40 vs NZ, Rajkot, 2017#NZvIND— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks) February 6, 2019
Worst defeats in two formats of the game under Rohit's captaincy in almost a week.
Hmm.
— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) February 6, 2019
Nothing’s worked for India today except Rohit Sharma winning the toss. And his decision to field first seems to be boomeranging badly
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) February 6, 2019
NZ batsmen treating Hardiks bowling like he treats women…. #NZvInd
— Innocent Bystander (@InnoBystander) February 6, 2019
Chasing without Virat Kohli?
Indian team : pic.twitter.com/K83HdFa2mp— Æ (@EngineeRoholic) February 6, 2019
Kohli fans right now.#NZvIND pic.twitter.com/q1hDdgnbcT
— ch€t@n (@trust_my_lies) February 6, 2019