Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul hit fifties as India beat New Zealand
BCCI [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
India 204 for 4 (Iyer 58*, Rahul 56, Kohli 45, Sodhi 2-36) beat New Zealand 203 for 5 (Munro 59, Taylor 54, Williamson 51, Jadeja 1-18) by six wickets
Team India have got their campaign off to a winning start in New Zealand after their batters covered up for some loose bowling.
India won the toss and opted to bowl first on a wicket which is good to chase, so they had an early advantage.
Asked to bat first, New Zealand batsmen showed good signs as they batted well with both Colin Munro and Martin Guptill threatening the Indians.
But the first-wicket partnership was broken Shivam Dube struck. Although the problem seemed not to end as captain Kane Williamson entered the arena.
He looked in good touch and together with Munro, put on a partnership which too was eventually broken.
Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Seifert were the only failure in terms of New Zealand’s batting performance.
With Old Guard Ross Taylor making his first half-century for the Black caps in six years in T20I cricket propelling the kiwi total to 203/5.
It was a batting deck and so the Indian team would have been confident going into the dressing room.
As the second innings began, Rohit looked in touch in his short innings of 7 runs which included a six. Although Rahul hooded the key once again.
KL Rahul didn’t disappoint as he and Indian skipper Virat Kohli put on a sublime 99-run stand between the two for the second-wicket.
The wickets then felt in a heap for Indians only to get Shreyas Iyer into the fold. Shreyas carried on with his form from the recent Australia series.
With class batting, India chased down the target with an over to spare and spelling trouble for the Black Caps in games to come.
The next game is now being played on the 26th January, Sunday at the same venue.
