India beat New Zealand by five wickets in the first T20I in Jaipur.
Even before the start of the match, the dew had fallen on the ground, but despite this, the Indian bowlers bowled tightly, due to which the New Zealand team could only manage 153 runs for six wickets.
Chasing this target, the Indian team won by scoring 155 for three in 17.2 overs. In this victory, Rohit was also instrumental in giving life to Rohit in the 10th over of Trent Boult.
Rishabh Pant (12 not out in six balls) scored two consecutive sixes in the 18th over to give victory to the team. Venkatesh Iyer also remained unbeaten on 12 runs (11 balls two fours).
New Zealand captain Tim Southee (for 16 runs in four overs) took all three wickets of India.
Rahul (six fours and two sixes in 49 balls) and Rohit (one four and five sixes in 36 balls) got the team off to a fine start with 117 runs in 80 balls for the first wicket.
The team’s score was 79 runs in ten overs. After this, Rahul completed his half-century in 40 balls with four fours and two sixes. Then the partnership of 100 runs in 70 balls for the first wicket between the two was also completed.
India’s first blow came in the 14th over when Rahul was caught at deep square leg by playing a slow off-cutter from New Zealand captain Southee. Venkatesh Iyer comes to the crease.
Rohit then hit a six off Adam Milne to complete his half-century in 35 balls with five sixes and a four.
Southee then ended Rohit’s 55-run innings off a slow ball, which was caught by Martin Guptill.
Suryakumar Yadav (01), who scored a half-century in the last match, became the third victim of Saudi by playing two balls.
Earlier, after being invited to bat, New Zealand made a good start in the powerplay with 64 runs for the loss of one wicket, which looked like the team would post a score of 180 but they were curbed by the Indian bowlers including Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel. The spin pair did wonders in the middle overs.
Harshal Patel, who made his debut for India, took two wickets for 25 runs.
Experienced Ashwin took 19 runs and Axar Patel took one wicket each for 26 runs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar got one wicket each.
New Zealand got off to a good start thanks to openers Martin Guptill (31 off 15 balls) and Daryl Mitchell (31 runs). Both of them added 48 runs in 26 balls for the first wicket.
Guptill became the highest run-scorer in T20 International cricket, leaving behind Virat Kohli (3227 runs in 95 matches) as soon as he completed 10 runs. He now has 3248 runs in 111 matches. Rohit Sharma (3086 runs) is at number three in this list.
Guptill (three fours and two sixes in 15 balls) hit three fours on Bhuvneshwar in the very first over, out of which KL Rahul missed the catch of the New Zealand batsman while running off one ball.
Taking an aggressive approach on Bhuvneshwar, this New Zealand batsman started his second over with a six.
India’s first breakthrough was given by Deepak Chahar to Guptill, who had sent the bowler’s first ball for a six. But Guptill tried to play high on the second ball and was caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Then Mark Chapman came out to bat, who had scored a half-century in the first match. He was heading for a big innings here as well, as he and Mitchell added 31 runs in 27 balls. But in the ninth over, after hitting Axar Patel for a four, Chapman was caught by KL Rahul in an attempt to play a big shot. He scored 21 runs in 17 balls with three fours.
After ten overs, New Zealand’s score was 84 for two.
In the next over, Axar Patel again gave an opportunity to take another wicket, but Venkatesh Iyer missed the catch of Glenn Phillips.
Harshal Patel, the first uncapped bowler to receive the ‘Purple Cap’ at this stage of the Indian Premier League, took his first international wicket in the 12th over in the form of Mitchell (3 fours in 28 balls). Mitchell tries a good length ball at long on and New Zealand lose a big wicket.
The fourth blow to New Zealand came in the form of Tim Seifert (13) on the score of 125 runs, who gave a simple catch to Bhuvneshwar standing at short third man in Ashwin’s final over.
Harshal, who was included in the playing XI in place of injured Mohammad Siraj, took his second wicket as Glenn Phillips (34 runs, 21 balls, one four, three sixes) picked up the ball and took a simple catch by the fielder.
Bhuvneshwar then got Jimmy Neesham out caught by the wicketkeeper.
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