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Twitterati Erupted As India Eyeing Maiden T20I Series In New Zealand
By CricShots - Jan 26, 2020 4:04 pm
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India has now taken 2-0 lead in teh ongoing five-match T20I series against New Zealand after they convincingly chased down 132 runs in the second T20I at Eden Park, Auckland on Sunday with seven wickets in hand. The men in blue could not get to a good start as they once again lost the wicket of their deputy skipper, Rohit Sharma, cheaply. The tourists dealt another big blow as Indian captain Virat Kohli could only score 11 runs.

india
Team India

Both the talismanic Indian batsmen were dismissed by Tim Southee as the Kiwis spearhead scalped a couple of wickets and conceded just 11 runs in his first three overs.

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However, the in-form KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer made sure that India went past the chasing total with 15 balls to spare as they added 86 runs for the third wicket. Both the right-handers kept on scoring odd boundaries and rotated the strike with guile to keep the chase on the right path. New Zealand had another opportunity to run-out KL Rahul but they once again spilled it and he made most of the chance and continued his purple patch to bring up his back to back fifty.

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Kl Rahul scored another fifty

Earlier in the day, India restricted New Zealand to 132-5 after Kiwis skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and decided to bat first. Shardul Thakur provided the first breakthrough when Martin Guptill looked to cleared the in-field but holed out to Indian captain Virat Kohli at mid-off.

Kohli took another stunning catch when Colin Munro could not get any timing when he looked to clear the off-side but only managed to spooned it to the Indian skipper. New Zealand just could not break the shackles as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

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Ravindra Jadeja picked a couple of good quick wickets provided two quick wickets when Colin de Grandhomme gave a simple caught and ball back to the bowler. Kane Williamson looked to change the gear after making 14 from 19 balls but his slog-sweep against Jadeja found Yuzvendra Chahal at deep fine leg.

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Shreyas Iyer played another dominating knock

Ross Taylor also meandered to 18 runs off 24 balls and Jasprit Bumrah was able to get the veteran batsman as Rohit Sharma took a good catch in the deep. The Blackcaps keeper-bat Tim Seifert added some respectability to the hosts’ score as he contributed 33 runs from 26 balls with the help of one four and two maximums.

Brief Scores:

India – 135/3 i 17.5 overs (KL Rahul: 57*, S Iyer: 44; T Southee: 2/20) defeated New Zealand – 132/5 in 20 overs (M Guptil: 33; R Jadeja: 2/18, J Bumrah: 1/21) by 7 wickets and 15 balls to spare

Here is how Twitter reacted to India’s win:

https://twitter.com/akshay_kingdom/status/1221373999323570176