ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup-2023: India and New Zealand the Most Consistent Teams So Far!

The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup-2023 unfolding in India is not even halfway through as of today, and it’s impossible to say which of the contesting 10 teams are going to make it to the Top 4 in the knockout stage. And there’ve been huge upsets too in terms of the short-format World Champions England losing to Afghanistan and the ebullient South Africa, after they scored in excess of 400 runs against Sri Lanka, falling again to Netherlands. As we write this Pakistan and Australia fighting it out in a very important match for both of them: Pakistan, after making a rollicking start in the tournament, fell apart against India while Australia registered their first win against Afghanistan after three consecutive losses. Therefore, at the current juncture, we can hardly predict which teams are going to stage a fight-back or which teams are going to the top seamlessly, except perhaps for two teams: India and New Zealand. Both of them have won four out of four matches each so far—every win being resoundingly convincing. They are the most consistent teams and seem to be set to make it to the semifinals unless some resurgent teams happen to cause roadblocks for them or effect upset wins over them. In this context, the encounter between them on Sunday, the 22^nd of October 2023, should be the most awaited match of the tournament with exciting and curious prospects.

While New Zealand had defeated formidable rivals like England and Australia in their four matches, India defeated Pakistan and Australia among others. The opening pairs of both teams—Rohit-Gill for India and Conway-Ravindra for NZ— are being looked upon in awe by all rival teams. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli feature in the ten leading run-scorers of the tournament while Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra figure in the list for NZ. No doubt, the top orders for both teams are firing all cylinders so far except for the New Zealand top order capsizing in one of the matches against Afghanistan. After quite a long time, the India Top 4, namely Rohit, Gill, Virat and Rahul, have shown their grit and determination to consistently contribute in each match of the World Cup. Shreyas Iyer has also come in nicely in the order and been making solid contributions so far. There could be only one difference between the top two teams: the middle and lower orders of New Zealand have been tested successfully against Netherlands and Afghanistan; but in regard to India they’ve lost no more than four wickets in each of the four matches, mostly winning those matches hands down; and this factor may or may not figure in the later matches, particularly against NZ. And as per the latest information the injury of Hardik Pandya may cause quite a bit of unease in this regard.

The bowlers, in both the departments of pace and spin, are also doing great for both India and New Zealand. Mitchell Santner tops the list of bowlers with 11 wickets for NZ and India’s Jasprit Bumrah coming close second with 10 wickets so far.  The Indian bowlers, with the exception of Shardul Thakur, have been a revelation giving their team a manageable total to defend in each of the four matches. The peaking of spinner Kuldeep Yadav has happened at the right time while Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya have also been among wickets. The prospects ahead are really mouthwatering.

The ICC Men’s World Cup-2023, being played in the round robin format which was introduced in the 2019 Cup after a long break in since 1999, is allowing us to watch the 10 teams playing against each other at the 10 venues across the country. Out of the total of 48 matches to be played there’ll be 45 league matches in the round robin stage and then there’ll be the two semifinals (teams on positions 1&4 to play the first while no. 2&3 to play the second) to which the best four teams are to qualify on the basis of points and net run-rates and the Final to be played in Ahmedabad on Sunday, the 19^th November, 2023. India and New Zealand have been exchanging the top 1&2 positions on the basis of the net run-rates. South Africa and Pakistan are still in the top four positions, but depending on the performances of Australia, England, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan things may change quite fast.

I think the most positive factor about the tournament is that contrary to the oft-repeated phenomenon of the batting-second team winning almost all the time on the flat slow run-feast Indian pitches we’ve come to see both the toss-losing or batting-first teams winning quite a few of the matches. And there’ve been low-scoring matches too. The greatest thing is that the India pitches have been helping both pacers and spinners, without, of course, putting the batsmen at the bowlers’ mercy. Such high standards of competition and the glorious uncertainties of the game are seen to be playing on the minds of the team captains in choosing whether to bat or bowl first after winning the tosses. And of course, we are sorely missing the West Indies team, the king of unpredictability, in this World Cup as they lost out on the pre-qualifier matches.

(Note: Blogger is not allowing any single photo to be uploaded except in some odd files! Don't know why! Sorry! )

India Win Test Series 1-0 To Score The Maximum Points In WTC Rankings Crushing New Zealand In Mumbai!

It was inevitable that India would beat New Zealand in the Test Series decider in Mumbai after the Kiwis were bowled out for a pathetic 62 in their first innings giving India a lead of 263 runs; only the margin of the victory was of interest. It could have been by an innings and some runs had India enforced the follow-on at the last session of the second day. That surprising decision was somewhat explained by the Head Coach Rahul Dravid, happy with his first series win as a coach, that it was to give some batting experience to the Indian young guns and that there was no worry at all as India had ample time to bowl New Zealand out in the second innings. Perhaps, the decision was also to enable the inconsistent Pujara who came out to open in the second innings with Mayank and captain Kohli to have some batting practice too ahead of the South Africa tour starting from 26^thof this month. And more importantly, considering the fact that India’s top order or middle order or both has been failing at most times in the recent matches covering all the formats with only the lower order performing consistently, it was possible that Team India might have been worried of chasing even 100 runs in the last innings, because the lower order could not be depended upon every time.

 

Whatever be the reasons for not enforcing the follow-on, India had beaten New Zealand by a mammoth margin of 372 runs in the morning session of the fourth day of the second and last Test match in Mumbai today thus winning the series 1-0 and scoring 42 in the WTC-2021-23 (World Test Championship) points table which is the highest for all teams so far; but due to India’s winning percentage of 58.33 being less than Sri Lanka’s 100% and Pakistan’s winning percentage of 66.66, India occupy the third position at the moment.

 

The Wankhede pitch, traditionally a bit difficult for free scoring, has been a mystery in this test match. After two days of continuous rain in the city prior to the day of start the pitch definitely had moisture underneath which should have helped the Kiwi fast bowlers attacking the Indian batsmen on the first morning. However, as it turned out, they, Southee and Jamieson prominently, failed to capture even a single wicket in both the innings while India’s Siraj got three scalps on the second day and Umesh Yadav also got a lot of help from the pitch. This leads to the incredible feat of the Mumbai-born Ajaz Patel taking all the 10 India wickets in the first innings and taking the tally to 14 in the match thus equaling Kumble’s record. Of the other Kiwi spinners, Rachin Ravindra and Somerville, only the former managed 3 wickets in India’s second innings.

 

Ajaz Patel’s feat of being the third bowler ever to take all 10 wickets in a Test innings has a unique twist as even after his incredible performance his team not only could not win, but suffered a mammoth loss and he failed to qualify for the player of the match or the player of the series. This was not the case with Jim Laker who took 19 wickets in that match against Australia in 1956 or Anil Kumble who took 14 in that match against Pakistan in 1998 with their respective teams registering huge wins over their opponents thanks to their feats. This does not reduce Ajaz’s marvelous performance in any way, his misfortune is that he happened to be a part of the losing team.

 

Mayank Agarwal was justifiably declared the player of the match for his definitive 150 in the first innings and 62 in the second innings. Ravichandran Ashwin was declared the player of the series for his consistent performance of taking 8 wickets in the match—4/8 in 8 overs in the first innings and another 4/34 in 22 overs in the second innings—which never allowed the visitors to launch a comeback in the match. Jayant Yadav chipped in with 4/49 in 14 overs in the second innings, restricting New Zealand to just 167 all out. Axar Patel starred as a batsman in both innings—extremely useful 52 and 41—apart from his 3 wickets.

 

The match would put the Kiwis in a lot of introspection as to what exactly led to the absolute surrender of their batsmen who defended the first test with a sensational draw and the fast bowlers languishing wicketless despite a helpful pitch. They are sure to rue for a long time the fact that they could not capitalize on Ajaz Patel’s record haul of wickets. As for India, Virat Kohli would be very happy to achieve the feat of winning 50 international matches each in all the three formats and this Series victory ahead of the South Africa tour. As he said after the match his team enjoys a veritable luxury of selecting players for the final eleven with the young guns firing and the rested seniors joining the team for the coming tour.

India Vs New Zealand: Incredible 10-Wicket Haul By Ajaz Patel To Become Only The Third Bowler in Test Cricket History!

photo: espncricinfo.com

History is repeated at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai today, the second day of the second and last Test match between India Vs New Zealand, when the New Zealand left-arm orthodox spinner Ajaz Yunus Patel captured all the 10 wickets in the India first innings total of 325, to become only the third bowler to take 10 wickets (10/119) in a Test innings after Jim Laker in the 4^th Test between England and Australia at the Old Trafford in England in 1956, and Anil Kumble did in the second Test between India and Pakistan in 1998-99 at the Firoz Shah Kotla ground, Delhi. However, both Laker and Kumble achieved the incredible feats in the second innings of the opponent’s batting respectively while Ajaz becomes the first bowler to do so in the first innings of a Test in world test cricket history. The 33-year-old spinner made his Test debut in 2018 against Pakistan and has also been playing in the T20Is since that year. So far, Ajaz has played only 10 Tests for New Zealand with 29 wickets and also played a handy role as the last batsman like he contributed toward a sensational draw in the Kanpur Test.

 

Significantly, the English right-arm off-spinner James Charles Laker took an almost perfect haul of 19 wickets (19/90) in that historic test match which came to be known later as Laker’s match. His haul of 19 wickets in a test match is still unbeaten. Laker played 46 Tests for England taking with 193 wickets and made his Test debut in 1948 against the West Indies during England tour of West Indies in 1947-48 taking 7 wickets in the first innings on debut. Laker was an all-rounder too with two half-centuries in Tests and 2 centuries and 18 half-centuries in first class cricket. He took 9 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket (an incredible 127 fivers in first class cricket) and over 10-wicket hauls in a test match 3 times. His best was his historic 10/53 against Australia, the first time ever. He played his last Test in 1959 against Australia and passed away in Wimbledon in 1986.

 

Anil Kumble, one of the greatest leg spinners in world test cricket history, became the second bowler to take 10 wickets in a test innings in 1998-99 during the Pakistan tour of India, taking a total of 14 wickets in that 4^th Test match. Kumble played 132 Tests for India and had a massive tally of 619 test wickets—the fourth highest wicket-taking bowler of the world so far. He had five-wicket hauls 35 times in test cricket with over 10 wickets in a match 8 times and 72 fivers in first class cricket. His best was 10/74 in that historic match against Pakistan batting in the second innings and it was reported later that the other bowlers/players of his team helped him achieve the feat by bowling wide of stumps or not trying to take catches off them! Kumble made his Test debut in 1990 against England and played his last Test against Australia in 2008. He had also been a handy batsman having 1 century and 5 half-centuries in Tests. The 51-year-old great cricketer has always been engaged with Team India in various roles apart from the IPL.

 

It seems Ajaz Patel is not going to have a real chance of increasing his tally in this historic match for him as the Indian pacers, in sharp contrast to the NZ fast bowlers, mopped up 3 early wickets (all 3 going to Mohammed Siraj who replaced Ishant Sharma in this match) and later, the three spinners—R Ashwin, Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav (replaced an injured Ravindra Jadeja, making a comeback to India Test team after a record 9^th wicket batting performance for India with Virat Kohli in 2016 at the Wankhede only)—taking 1 each and making New Zealand reel at 38/6 at Tea. The Kiwis are missing the injured regular captain Kane Williamson sorely as the stand-in captain Tom Latham falling for just 10 runs, after a good performance in the Kanpur Test. As was inevitable the Kiwis got all out for a mere 62, giving India a massive lead of 263 runs. Ashwin finally made it 4 wickets for him for 19 runs and 3 for Siraj, 2 for Axar and 1 for Jayant Yadav. Surprisingly, India did not enforce the follow-on, and therefore, Ajaz gets a chance to increase his match tally.

 

photo: wionnews.com

The good part about the second Test in Mumbai is that the debut sensation Shreyas Iyer was not dropped as speculated with Ajinkya Rahane going out due to reportedly a hamstring niggle and not being fully fit, even though he was facing the specter of being dropped after poor batting and not being able to force a win in the Kanpur Test. The regular captain, Virat Kohli, coming in for this Test was out for a duck following Pujara’s. Not just because of this, but in general the BCCI would do better to appoint captains for the full series, rather than dividing the matches between two or three. India progressed to a pitch-specific good total of 325 runs in fits and starts, and largely thanks to opener Mayank Agarwal’s brilliant century (150 off 311 balls), his third Test ton, sticking on almost to the end of the innings, aided by an equally brilliant half-century by Axar (52), 44 by opener Shubman Gill and 27 by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.

India Vs New Zealand 1st Test Drawn: Tremendous Save By The Kiwis On A Nail-biting Last Day!

The first Test match between India and New Zealand has ended in a thrilling draw in Kanpur today with the last pair of the Kiwis, Rachin Ravindra and Azaz Patel, holding on for more than 8 of the 20 mandatory overs on the fifth and last day. This draw reminds us of the great Sydney Save when India drew level with Australia in January this year and then went on to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy under the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. If in that historic draw Ravichandran Ashwin crafted an unbeaten partnership with Hanuma Bihari for 40 overs lasting nearly 4 hours, here in Kanpur today debutant Rachin Ravindra played the ultimate survival game with the last man Azaz Patel. Rachin saw through an incredible 91 balls for his 18 runs with the three top Indian spinners in full flow. Although New Zealand at one stage were 79/1 Ravindra Jadeja (4/40) ignited the collapse along with Ashwin (3/35) and Axar (1/23) and when captain Williamson fell at the team score of 128/6 with more than 20 overs to go the game was totally in India’s favor. But the Kiwis never gave up fighting back even after the fall of the 9^thwicket and the agonized Indians, almost all of them in close catching positions, looked on helplessly as the Umpires finally stopped play for bad light after the completion of the minimum 90 overs. Chasing an improbable target of 284 runs for victory the Kiwis fully concentrated on defence from the beginning, losing the wicket of Young rather unfortunately in yesterday’s dying moments as they did not call for a review given out LBW to Ashwin.

 

The Test match has been a great display of competitive cricket on all five days with ups and downs for both teams. The highlight of the match is Shreyas Iyer who became the first Indian cricketer to score a century and a half-century on his Test debut and the third to score two half-centuries on debut after Dilwar Hussain in the year 1933-34 and Sunil Gavaskar in 1971. Taking on from Rohit Sharma in the T20I Series the stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bat first. India were able to put up a competitive 345 runs thanks largely to the efforts of Shreyas Iyer (105), Shubman Gill (52), Jadeja (50) and R Ashwin (38). For New Zealand Tim Southee took a fiver, Jamieson 3 scalps, and of the three Kiwi spinners only Azaz Patel managed to take 2 wickets.

 

New Zealand replied in a great style putting up 150 on the board without loss, and both Tim Latham (95) and Will Young (89) were unlucky not to get to their deserved centuries as Axar Patel ignited the Kiwi downslide taking a fiver, joined by Ashwin who took 3 and Jadeja 1, and the other wicket taken by pacer Umesh Yadav. Finally, New Zealand yielded a slender but advantageous lead of 49 runs to India, being all out for 296. In the second innings India started very badly being reduced to 51/5 as its top order failed miserably, and at that stage the Kiwis were in sight of a victory. However, again thanks to Iyer (65), Ashwin (32). Axar (28 not out) and a resurgent wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha (61 not out) India were out of the woods and were able to declare at 234/7 at close to stumps on the fourth day, setting a target of 284 runs for victory to New Zealand. Again, the Kiwi pacers Southee and Jamieson took 3 wickets each while spinner Azaz taking just one wicket.

 

The basic difference between the two teams is obviously the fast bowlers for the Kiwis and the class spinners for India while in the sectors of batting and fielding are evenly shared by the two teams except for the Kiwi collapse today with only Lathan scoring his second half-century. Perhaps, both of last Kiwi pair being left-hand batsmen posed a little disadvantage for the three spinners in the desperately thrilling moments in the last hour of the day. As 11 minutes for official end of play were remaining the inconsolable Indians hoped to bowl one or two overs more needing to get just one wicket; but like in all the four days of the match when bad light stopped play minutes before the official close the umpires did not allow it today either. In fact, the setting sun suddenly breaking out of the clouds allowed India to bowl the last three of the mandatory overs, but India failed to capitalize on it.

Although a result would have been most welcome in an absorbing Teat match like this there are hardly any ‘ifs and buts’ as both the teams had their advantages/disadvantages, and the Green Park pitch did not at all behave like a typical Indian turning pitch and has been playable enough till the last day. Of course, India were without a few of their stalwarts like the regular captain Virat Kohli, rested opener Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant, injured KL Rahul and the rested pacer duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami. Now, the decider second Test is to start at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai from the 3^rd of December. Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson would certainly be happy with this hard-earned draw and would go all out to seal the Series in Mumbai. This test series being part of the World Test Championship-21-22 both teams earn four points each from the drawn test. 

 

The comeback of Virat Kohli who has already been practicing in Mumbai poses a unique problem of selection. Who would Virat replace? Both Rahane and Pujara did not have a great match, but it is difficult to consider dropping anyone of them; because being the stand-in captain who has never lost a Test so far and being the regular vice-captain in Tests Rahane cannot possibly be dropped, and similarly, Pujara who has been anchoring the No.3 position stoutly in Tests is not likely to be dropped for the crunch match. Opener Mayank Agarwal also had a poor match; but dropping him would create a problem for the opening pair. Therefore, in all likelihood the record-making debutant Shreyas Iyer may eventually have to make way for Virat. It would indeed be a great sin to do so, but as pointed out by VVS Laxman in his expert chats on television that such selection dilemmas in the playing eleven in Indian cricket have always been solved essentially in the same fashion, one likes it or not.

India Clean Sweep Paytm T20I Series 3-0 As Their Bowlers Help Annihilate New Zealand By 73 Runs In Kolkata!

We mentioned in the last piece about the new T20I cricket captain Rohit Sharma winning the toss in contrast to Virat Kohli! And what a funny irony that in the third and last T20I match in Kolkata today in which India annihilated New Zealand by 73 runs Rohit made a hat-trick of winning the toss in sharp contrast to Kohli’s hat-trick in losing the toss in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021. Now, this phenomenon is set to haunt the hardcore Indian fans with the eternal question: had Virat retired from the captaincy before the World Cup and Rohit taken over, perhaps, the scenario and the excruciatingly painful results would have been different. Perhaps, again, the demotion of an opener of Rohit’s record to the No.3 position in the crucial match against New Zealand could have been prevented, and the Pandya-obsession could have been avoided. Wishful thinking, you may say so! But, these are important observations that you cannot deny!

 

Anyway, after winning the toss this time Rohit decided to bat first—a decision perhaps prompted by the new head coach Rahul Dravid who knows the Eden Gardens pitch very well crafting there the historic partnership of 376 runs with VVS Laxman in 2001 against Australia winning the Test Series 2-1and maybe Rohit wanted to experiment with batting first as he may have thought that he could not expect to go on winning the toss forever—because the Eden pitch could be turning more later in the evening. However, India team management decided to rest Ashwin and brought in the nearly-forgotten leg-spinner Yazvendra Chahal in his place; India also rested KL Rahul in view of the coming Test series and gave another chance to opener Ishan Kishan. New Zealand rested its standing skipper Tim Southee on workload management ground and brought in Lokie Ferguson. For this match Mitchell Santner was assigned the captain’s duty.

 

The opener duo of Rohit-Ishan made an explosive start putting up 69 runs in the powerplay of 6 overs with Rohit scoring most of the runs racing to his second consecutive half-century (56 in 31)) in just 27 balls with three towering sixes. Unfortunately, apart from the skipper no other recognized batsmen could contribute much as three quick wickets fell to spinner Santner (3/27) in the forms of Ishan (29), Suryakumar Yadav (0) and Rishabh Pant (4). Soon, with the fall of Rohit Sharma to spinner Sodhi India were reduced to 103 for 4 in the 12^th over. After a brief partnership between the Iyer-duo—Shreyas Iyer (25) and Venkatesh Iyer (20)—India seemed to be in the same pattern of the batting-first side ending up at less than 170-180 runs as their 6^th wicket fell at 140 in the 17^th over. But thanks to the bowlers Harshal Patel (18 in 11) and a big-hitting Deepak Chahar (21 in just 8 balls) India could finally put up 184/7, the highest team score of the series.

 

As Rahul Dravid would have expected the Indian spinners made mincemeat of the Kiwis. After a briefly breezy start in the first two overs wickets started falling in heaps as left-arm spinner Axar Patel took over and struck in his first ball getting the prize wicket of the danger man Daryl Mitchell (5), then the scalp of Mark Chapman for a duck in the last ball of the same over and then striking again in his second over clean bowling Glen Phillips for a duck again. The backbone of the visitors thus crushed, New Zealand could never recover. Chahal proved to be a little expensive, but he took the valuable wicket of Guptill. Watching the ball turning Rohit tried part-time spinner Venkatesh Iyer who also rewarded him with a wicket. Harshal Patel, continuing from his previous debut-match, captured 2 wickets apart from his batting performance. Finally, New Zealand folded up for a sorry 111 runs all out, meekly giving India a huge victory by 73 runs and whitewashed 3-0 in the series. Apart from Guptill (51), Tim Seifert (17) and Ferguson (14), no other New Zealander could cross the double-digit mark.

 

Now, over to the classic and the original format of cricket, that is Test Cricket. The first of the 2-match Test Series is going to start from the 25^th of November 2021 in Kanpur. And naturally, there will be lot of changes in both the teams with the short-format specialists leaving the teams to a much-deserved rest. While the regular Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson is coming back to join his team Virat Kohli is not available for at least the first Test in and Ajinkya Rahane will lead India. With Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel the third spinner is most likely to be bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

India Beat New Zealand By 7 Wickets, Win Paytm T2OI Series With 2-0 Lead!

India have won the Paytm 3-match T20 International Series beating New Zealand by 7 wickets in the second match in Ranchi today thus taking an unassailable 2-0 lead. In a rather funny contrast to Virat Kohli making a hat-trick of losing tosses in the T20 World Cup-2021 the new captain Rohit Sharma won his second consecutive toss in this series after Jaipur so far; however, this evening the dew factor was already there with winter season setting in the eastern region and it did not give India an undue advantage while chasing. India made one change bringing in IPL-sensation medium-fast bowler Harshal Patel replacing Mohammed Siraj while New Zealand made three changes—bowling all-rounder James Neesham, pacer Adam Milne and spinner Ish Sodhi, replacing Rachin Ravindra, Todd Astler and Lockie Ferguson.

 

Put into bat, New Zealand openers Martin Guptill (31 off just 15 balls) and Daryl Mitchell (31 in 28 balls) made an explosive start scoring 52 runs in 5 overs and 64 runs in the powerplay of 6 overs, of course losing the wicket of Guptill to Chahar at the team score of 48 in the 5^th over. The first over was an eventful one: the first ball going for a four through the slips nearly caught; the second ball hit for another four; in the third ball a high but easy catch dropped by KL Rahul who later made amends by taking a good catch to dismiss Mark Chapman off Axar Patel; and 14 runs were scored by Guptill in that over by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. The second over by Deepak Chahar was hit for 12 runs. The spinners, Axar and Ashwin, had to be called in along with Harshal Patel. As New Zealand tried to keep up the momentum they started losing wickets at regular intervals thanks to some tight bowling by the trio and also Chahar coming back to take a wicket in his third over. Thanks to Phillips (34 in 21 balls) the Kiwis finally was able to put up a rather not-good-enough total of 153/6. Big hitter Neesham was a huge disappointment as apart from just 3 runs in 12 balls he only managed to break his bat before getting out. Harshal on his debut captured 2/25 in four overs while all four other bowlers took a wicket each.

India too made a solid start with their openers Rahul and Rohit putting up 50 runs in the 7^th over and at 63/0 in 9 overs it was a tad slow and time to speed up the scoring to which Rohit responded immediately with a huge six off Santner, plundering 16 runs in that over, Rohit being also dropped off a skier by Boult in the 5^thball. Dropping catches has been a feature of this series affecting both the teams in Jaipur as well as in Ranchi. There was no looking back from that point as Rahul raced to his half-century and Rohit not far behind. The duo put up the 100-run partnership in the 12^th over, threatening to make the match a one-sided affair. Rahul, trying to hit another six, fell for 65 in 49 balls to captain Southee at the team score of 117/1 in the 14^th over.

 

Venkatesh Iyer came in to join Rohit and it was a good move to give the former a kind of grooming for batting with the hosts having an easy equation for victory. Rohit, in full flow, reached his half-century in 35 balls with a huge six off the Milne, and in the next over the India skipper fell at the same score of 55 to Tim Southee offering a rather tame catch with India needing just 20 runs in 28 balls. Suryakumar Yadav came in went for just 1run to Southee again giving him all the 3 wickets to fall. Suddenly there was a twist in the tale, India needing 17 in 24 losing 3 wickets quickly. Rishabh Pant settled the issue in the 18^th over bowled by Neesham by hitting 2 sixes of the first 2 balls and India cruising to victory by 7 wickets with 14 balls to spare. In all, a healthy beginning for the new skipper Rohit Sharma winning a series leading from the front, regrouping after the disastrous World Cup under a new coach Rahul Dravid. Now, the 3^rd T20I in Kolkata this Sunday will be a mere formality and more rookies are likely to be tried, but Dravid aims at winning every match which is the right spirit.

 

A point must be made here about the crowds. As the pandemic seemed to have stabilized in India the BCCI has allowed 100% capacity crowd to be allowed inside the stadiums after checking vaccination or RT-PCR negative certificates at entry both in Jaipur and Ranchi, and like in Jaipur the  Ranchi stadium was chock-a-block with spectators most of whom did not bother wearing masks. It becomes a joke to expect social distancing once you allow 100% capacity crowds. In fact, a worried advocate filed a PIL in Jharkhand High Court for the postponement of the Ranchi match demanding 50% capacity crowd to be maintained for entry. This worry cannot be dismissed easily due to the behavior patterns of the COVID-19 virus and the experience of Europe under a heavy surge of infections again, particularly Russia, Germany, Netherlands and Austria. Due to a careless Covidiotic behavior in the beginning of the year saw India suffer from the most horrible second wave and one cannot yet be certain about more waves in future.

T20I Cricket: Rohit’s India Hiccup Their Way To Beat Southee’s New Zealand, Lead 1-0!

India, under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma and in the new coach Rahul Dravid’s first match, India have defeated New Zealand in the first T20 International match in Jaipur on 17^th of November 2021 by 5 wickets with just two balls to spare, and taken 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series. India without ex-captain Virat Kohli and several key players being rested, and similarly, New Zealand without their regular captain Kane Williamson opting out have fought out the match almost as equals despite India having the advantage of winning the toss. The progresses of the two team’s respective innings also have some similarities that we will mention as we go on, though briefly.

 

Put into bat New Zealand started badly losing Daryl Mitchell in the very first over for a duck to Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who seemed to have found his form as India’s strike bowler. However, from that point a healthy partnership between Guptill and M Chapman grew and at 110/1 in the 14^th over New Zealand seemed to be aiming at a 190+ total. At that point R Ashwin who was notoriously not included in the Indian squad in the vital first two matches of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021, struck two vital blows removing both of Chapman (63) and G Phillips for a duck reducing the visitors to 110/3. Guptill (70) fell to rookie pacer Deepak Chahar in the 18^thover as the Kiwis lost the momentum and could set up only a fighting target of 164 for India to win in 20 overs.

 

In the Indian chase, the hosts, in a similar way of the visitors, lost KL Rahul (15) relatively early (of course, after a 50-run opening partnership) and then a good 3^rd wicket partnership grew between Rohit (48) and Suryakumar Yadav (63) who was also dropped in the crucial World Cup match against the Kiwis, and at 109/1 in the 14^thover India seemed to be cruising to an easy victory. But then, Trent Boult struck two vital blows removing both of them as the hosts started struggling to get the runs flowing. Rishabh Pant kept his end safe with fits and starts even as Shreyas Iyer (5) and the IPL-found Venkatesh Iyer (4) fell cheaply with India finally needing 5 runs from 4 balls thanks to a wide by Mitchell and with Axar Patel for company Pant (17) finally hit the winning boundary to see India home in a prestige match for both new captain Rohit and new coach Dravid, also in view of India’s humiliating loss to the Kiwis at the Group-B league of the T20 World Cup. Rohit was in full flow continuing from the World Cup, but his not crossing the half-century mark created all the hiccups for India’s win. This is an area of concern for India with their batsmen yet to find a clue to tackle the NZ pacers, even in the much friendlier home turfs.

 

New Zealand, the runners-up of the World Cup and without Kane Williamson plus a pacer for this T20I series, is still a very tough team and the re-grouping India is not going to find it easy to overcome them in the remaining two matches in Ranchi on 19^th and in Kolkata on the 21^st of November. This is good news for Indian cricket lovers to watch some competitive matches live in the stadiums after being deprived of the same for nearly one and half years as Cricket New Normal took over. Both Kohli and Williamson are likely to join their teams for the 2-match Test Series to follow.

 

In the meantime the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2022 has been announced with Australia as the host and Melbourne to stage the Final on 13^th of November 2022 and apart from Sydney four more cities including Brisbane and Perth have been added as the 6 venues. The back-to-back World Cup tournament in the shortest format is set to start from 17^thof October 2022. Eight teams including India have already qualified for the Super-12 stage and the rest 4 teams will have to be selected from the qualifying round. Unfortunately, there is no indication of making any changes in the format and the number of games to be played. The toss remains too. Changing ‘batsman’ to ‘batter’ is only of etymological interest. 

T20 World Cup: India Gone With The Windy Kiwis As They Clean Up The Afghani Chicken Dish!

The most eagerly awaited match between New Zealand and Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi today came as an anti-climax for millions of Indian fans as the Kiwis made mincemeat of the Afghans   winning by 8 wickets, thus eliminating India from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021. This super Sunday in terms of viewership turned out to be a spoilsport the same as the previous two ‘super’ Sundays for the hugely disappointed fans. Realistically speaking, it was quite unreasonable to expect a team that was demolished by India just three days back to bounce back and defeat a team that has been very dominant in international cricket for the last few years. Afghanistan won the toss and reverted to their original tactic of batting first. When asked about the reversal of decision captain Nabi said that that evening in the match against India the dew was a factor which actually was not ultimately, but today’s  being a day match with a good batting surface and three Afghan spinners the decision was made. However, the decision misfired again.

 

The Kiwi pace battery proved to be too much for Afghanistan as the trio fast bowlers, Southee, Boult and Milne, shared the three wickets that fell very early on. Thanks only to Najib Zardan’s lovely innings of 73 runs in 48 balls Afghanistan was able to cross the 100-run mark and finally posting a feeble total of 124/8; a target that even the super spinners would find very hard to defend. No other Afghani batsmen could make significant contributions. They were also handicapped by super fielding and outstanding catches take by the Kiwis. New Zealand, happy to restrict the opposition to a highly attainable score and totally focused on ensuring a semi-final berth, progressed slowly and steadily losing Daryl Mitchell to Mujeeb early on. Martin Guptill fell to Rashid Khan after scoring 28 runs. Then Captain Kane Williamson (40 not out) and Conway (36 not out) took charge of the chase guiding their team home with 11 balls to spare. New Zealand is now in the top position with a better net run-rate than Pakistan which may change after the latter’s last match against Namibia later today.

 

Semi-finalists of the T20 World Cup are now finalized: England and Australia in Group-1; and New Zealand and Pakistan in Group-2. Who will meet who in the two semi-finals will be clear after the Pakistan-Namibia match. If the game of cricket were a hurdle race then New Zealand would be the greatest hurdle in India’s progress in the title race in World Cup tournaments in recent times, always defeating India in crucial matches including the ICC World Cup-2019. India must find a way to handle the NZ fast bowlers fast. In any case, there is going to be much introspection and soul-searching with the new coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid, taking over from Ravi Shastri after the tournament. Hardly a soul would be interested enough to watch what India would do to Namibia tomorrow, except perhaps the die-hard fans of the Indian ‘superstars’.

PS: Pakistan defeated Namibia by 72 runs and topped Group-2, remaining unbeaten. First Semi-final: November 10, England Vs New Zealand; Second Semi-final: November 11: Pakistan Vs Australia. 

T20 World Cup: New Zealand Crush India As If Fulfilling The Hot Favorites’ Death Wish!

For the second time in a row India captain Virat Kohli lost the toss, this time to New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and the latter unhesitatingly decided bowl first. In Dubai, the venue of this crucial encounter, in all the six matches played so far the chasing teams have won all the time. If that was not enough Kohli took Ishan Kishan in place of a supposedly injured Suryakumar Yadav and allowed him to open which was somewhat justified as left-right combination. But the biggest shocker came when Rohit Sharma, one of the most successful openers for India in all the formats of cricket, did not come in to open. As I mentioned in an earlier post the dropping of a sound opener Shikhar Dhawan who performed very well in the IPL-2021 was a huge mistake and his absence is now felt at every moment apart from disturbing the right-left combination. Then, the non-bowling, the supposedly non-fit Hardik Pandya still remained in the team. The team lost its balance completely and that effectively ended the match for India, now almost out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021.

 

Ishan failed after hitting a four; KL Rahul, relentlessly being promoted as an opener while he ideally remains India’s best No.3 batsman in all formats, failed again; Rohit Sharma, probably unable to adjust to his first-time-in-life No.3 position, failed to push on after hitting a few lovely shots; and captain Virat Kohli added to the drama created by him and his advisers by failing too, reducing the hot favorites of the tournament to 48/4 in the 11^th over. It was now up to Pant and Pandya to do all the repair work. Pandya fully vindicated his captain’s faith in him by becoming the second highest scorer of the innings at 23 off only 24 balls and the highest scorer being Ravindra Jadeja at 26 in only 19 balls, and thanks to them India brilliantly managed to cross the daunting 100-run mark, setting an equally impeccable target of 111 to get for New Zealand. Wow! What an achievement! Earlier, Kohli took in Shardul Thakur too in place of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to strengthen India’s bowling attack, apparently unable to understand the fact that India actually needed at least 10 bowlers to get New Zealand all out, if the wicket-keeper could be spared the trouble.

 

However, the Kiwis were in a merciless mood to fulfill India’s death wish, because they fully realized and were sympathetic that their beloved fellow cricketers have been suffering from IPL-fatigue, bubble-fatigue and all the fatigues imposed on them by an equally merciless cricket board. Therefore, they did not tire the Indians much by sparing the labor of more than 5 overs at 111/2 , winning by  8 wickets. Now the ideal moves would be for Kohli to prepone his stepping down from T20 captaincy, for Ravi Shastri to resign and for the mentor-Dhoni to mentor the team to a healthy mindset of returning home sooner than later.  Anyway, fans need not be discouraged, because the Blues though in the blues can still make it by defeating Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia along with scoring tons of runs to improve their net run-rate and Afghanistan beating New Zealand. Even otherwise, fans can still watch their superstars in the flowing commercials without minding their absence in the field.

 

In other matches South Africa managed to beat Sri Lanka at the death yesterday to keep them in contention for a semi-final berth in Group-1. England, the bulldozer in Group-1, kept on their act by crushing Australia in the other match yesterday amassing 6 points from 3 matches and almost sealing their semi-final berth. Tomorrow's match of England Vs Sri Lanka and the and the double header on November 2 including the match of South Africa Vs Bangladesh are set to clear up the Group-1 prospects a lot. Earlier today, Afghanistan registered their second huge victory by routing Namibia by 62 runs rising to the second position with 4 points and a very healthy net run-rate.

T20 World Cup: Who Will Be The Top Two Teams In Group-2?

Pakistan have almost sealed their berth in the semi-finals as probably the top team in Group-2 winning three out of three matches and notching up 6 points so far. What is more significant is the fact that Pakistan have crossed the main hurdles by defeating the toughest opponents in the group, namely India, New Zealand and Afghanistan. Now they have only two teams to overcome, considered to be weaker rivals. Of course, Namibia, creating another historic chapter by winning their first ever Super-stage match against Scotland, and Scotland are not pushovers. However, considering the roaring form Pakistan are in now winning against those two teams is not likely to be very tough, and in that scenario they will have 10 points—the maximum any team can manage in the group. The Pakistan team has arguably the best bowling attack of the tournament—combining pace and spin—and a very balanced team with someone up or down the line to finish the game. Captain Babar and wicket-keeper batsman Rizwan have shown consistency among quite a few others.

 

Afghanistan earlier trounced Scotland in the way of a champion and gave a tremendous fight against Pakistan taking their 5 wickets with 24 needed from the last two overs. But for finisher Asif Ali’s four sixes in the penultimate over the match could have gone in any direction. Their decision to bat first after winning the toss was probably due to Rashid and Nabi, but they could’ve done better by putting Pakistan in as the latter has not been tested so far in their ability in setting a target in the sluggish pitches. Unfortunately, Afghanistan could not manage to preserve one of their best strike bowlers for the death. The team has arguably the best spinners of the tournament in Rashid Khan and Nabi with the latter almost taking the game away from Pakistan in the 18^th over. Rashid Khan is in the seventh heaven capturing his 100^th scalp in 53 T20I matches. Already with 2 points Afghanistan have at the moment two tough opponents in the form of India and New Zealand apart from Namibia. With their spirit and talent they can really hope to get to 6 points to remain in contention. Their thundering six-hitting prowess has also become an important factor in their favor.

 

For India it is a must-win situation tomorrow against New Zealand; they have to win at least three out of the four remaining matches to get to 6 points to be in contention for a semi-final berth. The depth of their batting is yet to be tested, and Rohit, Rahul and Virat must fire against New Zealand—a very tough opponent with quality fast bowlers and super fieldsmen. As per the first match against Pakistan the Indian bowling attack seems the weakest in the group and there are several niggles in the team selection. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has not shown his strike-bowler abilities either in the IPL-2021 or in the crucial match against Pakistan and he is a prime candidate for being replaced by Shardul Thakur who can also bat. Captain Virat Kohli’s obsession with Hardik Pandya is another hassle, because Pandya has not been bowling at all in the previous matches and his batting of late is also not promising. That puts the team in a crisis of not being able to find a sixth bowler in need. Ideally, Pandya should be replaced by Ravichandran Ashwin who has shown his prowess as a genuine all-rounder recently. But reports suggest that the same eleven will be fielded tomorrow. If India manage to beat New Zealand the future course would be relatively easy, at least to get 6 points.

 

New Zealand must be boiling hot and gearing up for a much-needed win after losing narrowly to Pakistan. If they manage to beat India with their ferocious pace attack then the future course would also be easier for them to notch up the minimum of 6 points to remain in contention. They would hope to overpower Scotland and Namibia, and even Afghanistan if they handle their spin attack successfully. New Zealand beat India in the famous World Cup-2019 semi-final and lost the final against England under controversial circumstances. Their super fielding is an additional asset for all their rivals concerned.

 

Therefore, we can imagine a situation of three teams of Group-2 ending up with 6 points each where the net run-rate would come into consideration to decide the second top team from the group, provided Namibia and Scotland do not cause any upsets. Tomorrow’s India Vs New Zealand encounter is perfectly setup with both teams facing a desperate must-win situation. As per the pitch behavior in UAE we can possibly expect a low-scoring cliffhanger or a one-sided affair if the Indian batting potential gets real with their spinners finding the deadly turn or if New Zealand fast bowlers manage to destroy Indian batting. As usual, the toss would be crucial as the dew factor would come into operation later in the night. For commercial reasons India figure in the second slot in all matches, but the toss and the dew factor may finish off commerce totally if India are unable to make it to the semi-finals.

 

Interestingly, in any world cricket tournament the India Vs Pakistan match is always of tremendous importance for the Indian fans. If India beat Pakistan in the round-robin then the fans feel as if the final has been won and if the opposite happens like in this tournament, although it was for the first time in one-day and T20 World Cups, most of the fans stop caring who goes on to win the final and the Cup. Nevertheless, if India manage to get to the semi-final stage the fans, barring the bigots, are expected to come roaring back to support their team.

Cricket of Whitewashes: New Zealand Hammer India 2-1!

Photo: latestly.com

The cricket mandarins of India, if as short sighted as the shorter formats, might as well gloat over India’s 5-0 whitewash over New Zealand in the shortest format that is the T20I Series, and might as well reason that the process of experimentation has finally given a team for the T20I World Cup coming up in October this year. However, the said team is yet a team of probables only, and the IPL starting later this month might as well throw up again a plethora of new ‘talents’ for the ‘choices’ of the worthy Indian selectors; therefore, the experimentation is far from over yet.  In the second test match played in Christchurch New Zealand has beaten India by 7 wickets in just the third day today thus achieving the third whitewash of the tour of 2-0—the second whitewash being the Kiwis’ triumph of 3-0 in the shorter that is the ODI Series. New Zealand had earlier won the Wellington test by 10 wickets. India had had their chances though in both the Tests—in the first in Wellington the Indian bowlers failed India come back into the match while in the second after the bowlers ensured even a lead for India, though the slenderest, the batsmen failed miserably to drive home the advantage. In totality, India just couldn’t cope with the three-pronged and then the four-pronged pace-attack of the Kiwis on their home turf with fast-bowler Kyle Jamieson towering above all.

Why Team India, on top as far as Test matches are concerned in the last few years, did so miserably having the advantage of batting first on both occasions? The reasons are not far to seek. The ‘inducted’ veterans couldn’t perform as instantly as the team management wanted, you know, putting them up on green pitches suddenly out of the wilderness. Second, the consistent failures of Captain Virat Kohli contributed majorly for the batting blues. Third, injury to Rohit Sharma and the new openers not quite up to the task, particularly Mayank Agarwal, contributed to the consistent batting collapses. Fourth, India failed to have a proper pace battery to match green pitches (Jasprit Bumrah not in top form yet) and still going for the spinners who, obviously, just proved to be ornamental. And lastly, again, the selection blues: even God wouldn’t have an idea as to why the top-form KL Rahul was not considered for the Tests whereas he had proved his worthiness in Tests too earlier; why Wriddhiman Saha was not preferred as the wicket-keeper over Rishabh Pant in whose case, of course, no logic applies as far as selection (perhaps the greatest cricket talent of the millennium) is concerned.

This tour doesn’t augur well the for the away series that India is set play in the near future with even day-and-night or Pink Test matches being planned in Australia. The worthy selectors must justify their ‘endless experimentation’ saga with players rested at will, dropped at will and the seasoned campaigners not even considered most of the times. But for the looming IPL, a veritable T20 bonanza of cricket, glamour and cash, the team management would’ve learnt a few precious lessons from India Tour of New Zealand-2019/20 to prepare for the T20 World Cup-2020 which, on the earlier occasion too, they couldn’t realize in time, again thanks to IPL, to prepare well for the one-day World Cup-2019. Alas!

Cricket Of Whitewashes—Now New Zealand ODI-Swamp India 3-0!

Photo: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

After India whitewashed New Zealand by 5-0 in the T20I Series now New Zealand whitewash back with a 3-0 triumph over India in the 3-match one-day international (ODI0 Series. In the third and final match today at Mount Maunganui New Zealand thrashed India by 5 wickets, despite a challenging target of 297 put by India. With NZ openers Guptill and Nicholls going-great-guns the Kiwis overtook the target with relative ease. In the first match the hosts assailed India’s target of 347, the stiffest and highest of the series, with quite a few balls to spare exposing the visitors’ bowling woes. Some Indian commentators have once again played with the word ‘complacency’ saying that perhaps the Indians were a bit complacent after the T20 whitewash! Well, over the decades this writer has been utterly unable to understand how a professional team affords to be complacent against another professional team in very competitive international matches. The hyped products of experimentation like the Sainies or the Thakurs hardly able to do anything to justify the exclusion of Test pacers. We’d also like to know what has happened to Khaleel Ahmed and others who were experimented relentlessly in a two-year countdown to the ICC World Cup-2019.

Of course, you can say Team India is depleted with both the openers—Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma—out due to injury. Of course! But if you’ve been experimenting consistently over the years where are your performers then? This proves again that the selectors have been just blindly trying to help the IPL youngsters without getting into the ‘performance’ track. The set No.4 batsman Ambati Rayadu was banished into oblivion before the World Cup and thus artificially creating the No.4 syndrome. Moreover, why are Test-tested batsmen like Ajinkya Rahane and some of the bowlers are permanently dropped for the shorter formats? Again, if we look closely into the ODI series it is more of bowlers’ failure than batsmen’. I still stick to my view that excellent Test performers can always excel in any format of the game. As for New Zealand, they have set in order the inexplicable batting blues displayed in the T20 series.

Now with the two-match Test Series between Indian and New Zealand coming up, the same ‘dropped’ veterans will be inducted into the team, and the selectors would want them to perform instantly while depriving them of good exposure in the shorter formats. If you’re doing experiment which you’ll continue doing since the T20 World Cup-2020 is coming up, then why restrict it only to IPL ‘talents’, why not open it up to veterans too? Anyway, now over to Test cricket! Should we expect the hat-trick of whitewashes? Nothing wrong in having great expectations!

India Vs New Zealand T20 Cricket: The Tying Spree & The Indian Glee!

Two days back I wrote ‘You hardly come across tied T20I matches…!’ now; circumstances force me to cancel that kind of condescending writing style and write ‘the tying spree…’! Because, after the Hamilton tie you get on your platter another Wellington tie—the second successive tie with, as usual, New Zealand snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and India winning again in the super over. Thus, winning the Wellington 4^th T20I match today Team India makes it 4-0 in the five-match Series. Hamilton: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 179, New Zealand lose two wickets in the 20^th over, fail to score 2 runs off 4 balls and ties the match at 179; in the super over New Zealand set a target of 18 runs, India overhaul it winning the match and the Series. Wellington: the Kiwis win toss, elect to field first, India set a target of 166 runs, New Zealand lose four wickets in the 20^th over, fail to make 20 runs off 21 balls with seven wickets standing at one stage; in the super over New Zealand set a target of 14 runs, India overhaul easily winning the match and taking the lead to 4-0. In both cases the graph is similar with equally inexplicable batting rigmarole of the Kiwis. Anyway, Indian fans rejoice again, not as much for making it 4-0 as getting the excitement of an unexpected tie for the second time in succession.

India looked to be suffering from a ‘defeat wish’ from the very beginning today: as expected after winning the Series they experimented with abandon—dropping a batsman in the most explosive form (Rohit) or rather ‘resting him’ as they say and more set players being rested  making way for the IPL talents (as for your innocent query as to why Indian cricket superstars need so much rest the Indian team management would not be able to give a suitable reply); then they suffer a batting collapse with only Manish Pandey (50 not out) giving some semblance of respect in setting the final target of 165/8. With two of the Indian top-form bowlers including the gamechanger Shami in Hamilton being rested too, it was New Zealand’s game, overwhelmingly. And, cruising at 159 for just 3 the Kiwis looked to have the first winning taste in this series. However, it was not to be: both of the set batsmen—Munro (64) and Seifert (57)—got run-out at important junctures. And then, the 20^thover: what Shami did in Hamilton, player-of-the-match Shardul Thakur did in Wellington; as in Hamilton Taylor paved the way for defeat by getting out—this time to Thakur, then the crucial run-out of Seifert, next Thakur gets Mitchell out caught and the last ball saw the run-out of Santner. So, in the 20^th over the Kiwis lost 4 wickets including 2 run-outs instead of simply getting the 7 runs required. There were 3 run-outs in the NZ innings speaking volumes for the spirited Indian fielders.

Apart from the bounty of 2 successive ties, Team India, it needs to be mentioned, shows a new kind of resolve to get back into a match from any situation and finally winning it—be it in the super over or otherwise. This new-found spirit augurs well for the team in the coming T20 World Cup in Australia. However, this result does not justify the mindless experimentation, and blindly trying out the so-called IPL talents. Such experimentation didn’t help the team in winning the one-day World Cup-2019 and many of the then-experimented players now languish in the dumps, several veterans being ignored continuously. It is also interesting to note that now; India is winning more with only a make-shift wicket-keeper in the team than 4 wicket-keepers in a playing eleven in many of the earlier short-format matches!

T20 Cricket: Rohit Again as India Win A Super-Over Thriller, Seal T20I Series Against New Zealand!

You hardly come across tied T20I matches any part in the cricketing world; but today the third Twenty20 International match between India and New Zealand in Hamilton became one, and incredibly so. Indian opener Rohit Sharma starred in the Indian innings after being put into bat with 65 off 40 balls in a team total of 179/5, and yet again in the super over overhauling the New Zealand challenge of 18 runs with two sixes in the final two balls. A terrific 95 off just 48 balls by Kiwi captain Kane Williamson was in vain as he fell to Shami with just 2 runs needed off 4 balls of the final over. New Zealand needing 9 runs to win, Shami started the 20^th over conceding a six to Taylor, then 1 run to Taylor that brings Williamson into strike, third ball gets him out caught in the gully, next ball dot to Seifert, fifth ball yields a bye, and the sixth ball bowls Taylor ending the match in a tie allowing a super-over finish. Mohammed Shami was justifiably the Game-changer of the match while Rohit bagged the Player of the Match honor.

On a somewhat slow pitch India began with an explosive partnership of 89 runs with Rohit racing to his half century in just 23 balls—the second fastest in T20 cricket. However, the Kiwi bowlers adjusted to the pitch superbly by bowling slower ones with spinner Sodhi doing extremely well giving away only 23 runs in 4 overs. India seemed to lose the plot of a 200+ target, and the changes in batting order didn’t help at all: when the stage was set perfectly for Virat Kohli after the fall of Rahul and with Rohit going great guns, in came not Kohli nor Shreyas nor even Pandey, but Shivam Dubey! Well, experiment and the IPL youngsters, no doubt! But for Jadeja and Pandey hitting some lusty blows in the final couple of overs the target could have been much easier than 179. Even then, the target of 180 was not a tall order and the Kiwis almost proved it. The pace bowlers of both teams toiled hard on the field—Southee for NZ and Jasprit Bumrah for India proving very expensive and wicketless.   

The match reminds one of the ICC Cricket World Cup-2019 Final when New Zealand failed to win in similar situations against England, and even a super-over could not yield a winner, leading to a result that still disturbs many. For India too, the name ‘New Zealand’ rankles thanks to the semi-final of the World Cup when India failed to cope with the Kiwi pacers the run-out of Dhoni being the turning point. That India have sealed the five-match T20I Series in New Zealand against New Zealand at 3-0 winning the first two matches in Auckland with relative ease would make a lot of Indian fans happy, not to mention the ecstasy of today’s incredibly exciting thriller going the Indian way at the very end.