New Zealand has scored a telling win against India in the first T20 match played at Wellington today. The performance from the New Zealand side that we saw today was what we expected from them in the ODI’s just gone by. Today they excelled in all the departments of the game be it batting bowling or fielding. The Indian team collapsed in front of the New Zealand onslaught and were routed by 80 runs. The Islanders simply did not allow any of the batsmen to settle down after piling on a huge score of 219 runs in their allotted twenty overs.
The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss first and elected to field first and his decision backfired. The New Zealanders simply raced away to 86 runs for no wicket with Collin Munro the first batsman to be out for 34 runs. TL Seifert who had a good game both as a batsman and a wicketkeeper scored an aggressive 84 off only 43 balls at a strike rate of 195.53! There was nothing that the Indian bowlers could do today in front of the onslaught launched by the Kiwis. With handsome contributions by Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and their number eleven batsman, SC Kuggeleijn, New Zealand set India a target of 220 runs to score at the asking rate of 11 runs per over.
Rohit Sharma, the Indian skipper was the first to lose his wicket. He has not contributed many runs to the team total in the last three matches and needs to improve on his form if India has to perform well in the limited over matches. Shikhar Dhawan was the next batsman to leave for the pavilion when he was dismissed on a score of 29 runs. The youngsters in the Indian team could not handle the pressure of the asking rate at this point which was steadily rising.they were going after balls that could have been called wides if they had not managed to touch them. Many of the wickets were lost to such deliveries.
The three, four and six batsmen batted without any strategy. They appeared to be simply swinging at the deliveries in the process skying the ball for some well-taken catches by the New Zealand fielder. TL Seifert who was keeping the wickets himself took brilliant catches one each low down on either of the wicket. To add to the woes of the Indians there were at least three amazing catches in the outfield by the New Zealand fielder, all off lofted shots.
Now that New Zealand has a one nil lead in the three-match series the games will prove to be more interesting. Either India has to win the next match or lose the series which will be a blemish on their two and a half month tour of Australia and New Zealand.