Team India won the second T20I against New Zealand by 6 wickets to square the current three-match T20I series (1-1) and set up a thrilling finale on February 1, 2023.
The match was held at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow and was a low-scoring game, contrary to the common notion that Lucknow is a “batter’s paradise” at times.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Kiwis may have made their choice based on common perception about the Lucknow pitch. However, the surface behaved like a rank turner and was a sluggish wicket to bat on. However, some outstanding bowling from the Indian bowlers left the Kiwi hitters at their mercy once again. They were urgently looking for solutions to questions posed by the spin bowlers in particular.
The New Zealand hitters failed to reach triple figures, finishing with a score of 99/8 in 20 overs. Once again, the Indian bowlers shone. Arshdeep Singh took two wickets, while the other bowlers, including captain Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, and Deepak Hooda, each took one.
The pursuit proved to be exceedingly difficult for India. The primary example was opener Shubman Gill, who was defeated by the Kiwi bowlers by a tenth of a point. Suryakumar Yadav was India’s best batsman (26* runs off 31 balls) and bailed the team out.
On the other hand, the Kiwi bowlers had nothing to defend other than the fact that they managed to take four Indian wickets with the likes of Michael Bracewell, Ish Sodhi, and Mark Chapman.
Let’s take a look at what the two captains had to say at the end of the match –
Losing Captain – Mitchell Santner (New Zealand)
“It was a great game of cricket. To get it so close was a great effort from the bowlers. If we’d got an extra 10 or 15, could have been the difference. The calmness of Surya and Hardik to get them over the line was pretty good. We bowled 16 or 17 overs of spin, definitely something different. With the bounce out there, it looked challenging. You are not sure what a good total is. 120 might have been a good score. Rotation might have been the difference.”
Winning Captain – Hardik Pandya (India)
“I always believed that we’ll be able to finish the game, but it went quite late. All these games are important with the moments. You don’t need to panic because it was about rotating the strike rather than taking the pressure. That’s exactly what we did. We followed our basics. To be honest, this was a shocker. Two games, the kind of wickets we’ve played on … I don’t mind difficult wickets, I am all up for that.
But these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line, curators should make sure that they prepare the game previously rather than having a couple of games there. Other than that, happy. Even 120 would have been a winning total. Bowlers – they stuck to their plans and ensured they did not rotate the strike. We kept rotating the spinners. Dew didn’t play much part in this. They were able to spin the ball more than us. It was carrying through well. It was a shocker of a wicket.”
