India earn hard-fought victory against New Zealand
Rishabh Pant slams the ball away for the winning hit, 1st T20I, India vs New Zealand, Jaipur, yesterday (BCCI)
Rishabh Pant slams the ball away for the winning hit, 1st T20I, India vs New Zealand, Jaipur, yesterday (BCCI)

(ESPNCRICINFO) – Daryl Mitchell is a seam-bowling, all-rounder who usually bats in the middle order, but for New Zealand’s T20 side he’s now an opening batter who barely bowls at all. Venkatesh Iyer is a seam-bowling, all-rounder who opens the batting for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), but last night, making his India debut, he didn’t get to bowl, and walked in at No. 6.

When Venkatesh faced his first ball in international cricket, India were threatening to lose a match that had seemed unlosable less than half an hour before. With six balls left, they needed ten to win. And New Zealand, having used up all their main seam bowlers, threw the ball to Mitchell.

Mitchell had earlier been out for a first-ball duck. Venkatesh had not been required at all until this point. Now they both had the chance to be the hero. Neither took that honour in the end. Venkatesh swatted the first legal ball he received for four, but was out next ball attempting a cute reverse-lap.

Mitchell got that wicket, but he also sent down two big wides that reflected his rustiness as a bowler. Eventually, it came down to three off three, and Rishabh Pant, who had struggled to 13 off 16, stepped out and swiped Mitchell over mid-off to put an end to what had become an unexpectedly close contest.

There had been fifties for Mark Chapman, Martin Guptill and Suryakumar Yadav, and a 48 from Rohit Sharma full of vintage strokeplay, as well as terrific bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R. Ashwin and Mitchell Santner, but the end result came down to the bit-part players.

Swing keeps New Zealand quiet
After a pair of out-swingers to Guptill, Bhuvneshwar greeted Mitchell with an inswinger. Mitchell jabbed at the ball with no footwork and the ball sneaked past his inside edge to knock back middle stump.

That was India’s only wicket in the powerplay, but the ball kept swinging for Bhuvneshwar, Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Siraj, and all three made a concerted effort to bowl within the stumps. Chapman, New Zealand’s No.3, struggled to break free of this strangulation, or even get off strike.

After three overs, Guptill had faced just two balls, and after five overs, he had faced just six. At that point, Chapman was on 20 off 23, and New Zealand were 26 for 1.

A partnership blossoms
New Zealand got going in the last powerplay over, when Chahar overused the slower short ball and conceded 15. There was only one boundary in the next four overs – shared between Ashwin and Axar Patel – but India conceded a spate of them after that, with Guptill extending his arms through a pair of lofted drives against Siraj, and Chapman putting Axar away for six and four in the 12th over and bringing up his fifty in the process.
When Guptill and Chapman hit back-to-back boundaries around the 14th over, New Zealand were 110 for 1, and looking on course for 177, according to ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster.

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