Just three days after the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2021, India and New Zealand met each other in the first match of the T20I series at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday. Under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, Team India registered a comprehensive five-wicket win over the Black Caps to go 1-0 up in the three-match leg.
After opting to bowl first, India restricted New Zealand to 164/6 in their allotted 20 overs and chased down the target in 19.4 overs with five wickets in hand.
During the first innings, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed his splendid class and returned with impressive figures.
Bhuvi picked up a couple of wickets while conceded only 24 runs in his quota of 4 overs. The right-armer drew the first blood in form of New Zealand opener Daryl Mitchell , who got out for a golden duck.
It all happened on the third delivery of the match when Bhuvneshwar bowled a sensational inswinger to get rid of Mitchell. Bhuvi came over the wicket and bowled a length delivery which nipped back in sharply, forcing the batter to go for a forward defence, resulting in a big gap between bat and pad as the ball breached Mitchell’s defence to hit the stumps.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/ShanuKu39157001/status/1460994936464150528
Apart from Bhuvneshwar, Ravichandran Ashwin, captain Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav were the other contributors for the ‘Men in Blue’. Ashwin picked up two scalps for 23 runs in 4 overs.
While chasing 165, Rohit made 48 off 36. Suryakumar, too, shined with the bat and scored 62 runs from 40 deliveries with the help of nine boundaries.
“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 brilliantly, 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,” said Rohit at the post-match presentation.
