Kiwis outclass India

Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell conjured up fluent and fiery half-centuries before the spinners choked the hosts as New Zealand outplayed India by 21 runs in the opening T20I to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Friday. Daryl Mitchell, Player of the Match: It is nice to contribute to a score which helps us win a game. I thought the way the boys bowled at the end was pretty special. It is nice to take some momentum into the rest of the T20 series. The guys who went in early said it was pretty difficult against spin because of the tacky nature. It was my job to build a partnership and then take the onus on myself after Conway’s departure. For me it is being really present and really clear, keeping it simple as possible and trusting my skills, not everytime it comes off in T20 cricket but it is always nice when you get a few off the middle. Mitchell Santner: It was a bit of a shock for everyone involved, how much it kinda spun in the second innings. But it was a great game and it was pretty tight at the end, we saw a lot of runs in the ODI series and it was nice to see the ball spin a bit more. I don’t think we were ever safe, 170-odd was nice with Daryl hitting a couple over and he batted extremely well, we knew we had a sniff with 180. It was nice to chip away some wickets in the powerplay and we had troubled doing that in the ODIs. At the toss we were going to bowl because we know chasing is so good over here and especially with the dew. That’s always the challenge (on captain using himself). You don’t want to be seen doing the easy overs and stuff like that. We knew it was spinning in the powerplay and it was nice to chip one out. Hardik Pandya: No one even thought that the wicket would play like that and both teams were surprised. But they played better cricket on this and that’s why the result end up like that. Actually the new ball was turning more than the old one and the way it spun, way it bounced, it caught us by surprise. But s