T20: Hard fought win for India 

It was a low-scoring thriller where New Zealand gave their all while defending the 100-run target. Suryakumar Yadav, who didn’t look at his best, managed to hit the winning runs for India after getting dropped twice in the game. The pitch assisted the spinners and both teams used them well to put pressure on batters on this surface. The spinners didn’t take many wickets but they managed to put a brake on the scoring speed in both innings. It was a thrilling game of cricket and now Ahmedabad will decide the winner of the series on February 1. Suryakumar Yadav, Player of the Match: A different version of SKY today. Adapting to the situation was very important when I went into bat. After losing Washy, it was important for someone to take the game till the end. (On his mix-up with Washington Sundar) It was my mistake, it was definitely not a run, I didn’t see where the ball was going. It was a challenging wicket. We didn’t think it’s turn this way in the second innings but it’s important to adapt. We just needed one hit in that over and it was very important to calm our nerves. Before we got the winning runs, he (Hardik) came and told me ‘you are going to finish on this ball’ and that gave me a lot of confidence. Hardik Pandya: 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, it was a shocker of a wicket. Both the games we have played on so far. 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 the curators or the grounds that we are going to play in should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier. 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