Jaipur: India beat New Zealand by five wickets in the first T20 International to go 1-0 up in the three-match series here on Wednesday.
Chasing a target of 165, Suryakumar Yadav (62 off 40 balls) and skipper Rohit Sharma (48 off 36 balls) scored the bulk of the runs as India reached the target in 19.4 overs.
Earlier, New Zealand scored a competitive 164 for 6, riding on half-centuries from Martin Guptill (70 off 42 balls) and Mark Chapman (63 off 50 balls). For India, Ravichandran Ashwin (2/23) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/24) were the pick of the bowlers.
Winning captain Rohit Sharma said, ‘Towards the end we saw it wasn’t easy, was a great learning for the guys because those guys haven’t batted in that situation before for India. It was great learning for them to understand what needs to be done, it’s not about power hitting all the time and you try and put the ball to the left or right of the fielder and try and take singles or find boundaries. As a team we are happy that those guys got to bat in that situation and finished the game off. Technically was a good game, missing a few players and to come and see what the new players have in terms of ability and I think the way we pulled it back in the last 3-4 overs was magnificent. In the end it was a great effort from all our bowlers. They (Ashwin and Axar) bowl in tandem for the Delhi Capitals and they are always looking to take wickets which is a good sign and it’s important to try and put the brakes and those guys do that. Surya batted birlliantly and that’s how he plays, he played some percentage shots as well and plays spin really well and uses the pace well for the fast bowlers. We (Boult and I) played a lot of cricket together and he knows my weakness and I know his strength, it’s a good fight between the two. When I captain him I always tell him to bluff, and that’s exactly what he did. He put the mid-wicket back and put the fine leg up and I knew he was gonna bowl a bouncer and I was just trying to put it over the fielder but unfortunately there wasn’t much pace on the ball.’
Tim Southee said, ‘You always want to come out on the right side of the result. We played our best cricket and took it deep. Mark Chapman hasn’t played a lot of cricket of late, and to play the way he played was very pleasing to the side. It was a game of fine margins. It was a good score, we wanted to start well with the ball but we did well to claw back in the middle and obviously Mitch Santner was outstanding with the ball and to take it deep and take it to the last over I guess that was a positive as well. It’s always tough with different grounds and stuff like that but we set high expectations ourselves, a little bit off in the field and it’s an area we pride ourselves on and that we have been very good at in the last few months. It’s always tough, Daryl has got a lot of training and always wants to bowl but probably didn’t leave him enough runs in the end. Guptill played nicely, Santner showed his class as well.’
Suryakumar Yadav, Player of the Match, said, ‘ I have not been doing anything different, just being myself whatever I have doing since the last 3-4 years. I bat the same way in the nets and replicate the same in the middle. I try and put a lot of pressure on myself in the nets, for example if I get out I just try to come out of the nets and try and think what better I could have done and it really helps when I play in the middle. The ball was coming on nicely with the dew coming in and later on it became really slow but in the end happy to be on the winning side. I would have loved to finish the game but that’s how you learn and move forward. About Trent, It’s my wife’s birthday also and it’s a perfect gift from him’.