RANCHI: India cruised to a second straight victory over World Cup runners-up New Zealand on Friday, giving new coach Rahul Dravid and new T20 captain Rohit Sharma their first series win.

Set 154 in front of a packed crowd in Ranchi, India crossed the line in the 18th over having lost only three wickets, avenging their eight-wicket hammering by the Black Caps in the World Cup.

India got off to a slower start than New Zealand, making 45 in the power play compared to the visitors’ 64.

But K.L. Rahul and Rohit, who took over as T20 captain from Virat Kohli after the World Cup, turned up the volume after the 10th over off some lacklustre bowling from Mitchell Santner and Trent Boult.

Rahul, who moved to his half-century in style with a low-trajectory six off Adam Milne, departed for 65 off 49 balls to a Glenn Philipps catch off the bowling of stand-in captain Tim Southee.

Rohit was dropped by Boult in the 10th over and went on to secure his 25th T20I half-century before handing a dolly catch to Martin Guptill to give Southee his second.

Suryakumar Yadav then chopped on for 1 to make it three wickets for Southee before Rishabh Pant finished the job with two successive sixes off Jimmy Neesham.Earlier, New Zealand’s openers got off to a flyer but tight Indian bowling restricted the visitors to 153-6.

World Cup runners-up New Zealand, put into bat, racked up 64 in the power play for the loss of just Martin Guptill.

But they struggled to score off the spin duo of Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin and debutant seamer Harshal Patel. Guptill smashed 31 off 15 — despite a bouncer to the head — before skying a slower Deepak Chahar delivery into the gloves of Rishabh Pant.

Mark Chapman, coming off an impressive 63 in the first game, made 21 off 17 before being caught on the boundary by Rahul trying to direct a full Axar Patel delivery over the ropes. Shortly afterwards Daryl Mitchell went for a maximum off Harshal Patel but was snapped by Yadav having made 31 off 28.

Tim Seifert managed only 13 of 15 before hitting a reverse-scoop off Ravichandran Ashwin straight to Bhuvne­shwar Kumar on the edge of the ring.

Glenn Philipps briefly got the scorecard moving with 34 off 21 including three sixes before being caught at deep square leg off Harshal Patel.

Neasham departed for 3 and Mitchell Santner and Adam Milne struggled to score in the death overs against clever bowling from Chahar and Harshal Patel who finished with 2 for 25.

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:

M. Guptill c Pant b Chahar 31

D. Mitchell c Yadav b H. Patel 31

M. Chapman c Rahul b A. Patel 21

G. Phillips c sub (R. Gaikwad) b H. Patel 34

Tim Seifert c Kumar b Ashwin 13

J. Neesham c Pant b Kumar 3

M. Santner not out 8

A. Milne not out 5

EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-1, W-4) 7

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 153

DID NOT BAT: T. Southee, Ish Sodhi, T. Boult.

FALL OF WKTS: 1-48 (Guptill), 2-79 (Chapman), 3-90 (Mitchell), 4-125 (Seifert), 5-137 (Phillips), 6-140 (Neesham).

BOWLING: Kumar 4-0-39-1 (1w), Chahar 4-0-42-1, A. Patel 4-0-26-1 (1w), Ashwin 4-0-19-1 (2w), H. Patel 4-0-25-2 (1nb).

INDIA:

K.L. Rahul c Phillips b Southee 65

R. Sharma c Guptill b Southee 55

V. Iyer not out 12

S. Yadav b Southee 1

R. Pant not out 12

EXTRAS (LB-6, W-4) 10

TOTAL (for three wkts, 17.2 overs) 155

DID NOT BAT: S. Iyer, A. Patel, R. Aswhin, B. Kumar, D. Chahar, H. Patel.

FALL OF WKTS: 1-117 (Rahul), 2-135 (Sharma), 3-137 (Yadav).

BOWLING: Southee 4-0-16-3 (1w), Boult 4-0-36-0 (2w), Santner 4-033-0, Milne 3-0-39-0 (1w), Sodhi 2-0-13-0, Neesham 0..2-0-12-0

RESULT: India won by seven wickets

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2021