(Cricket news) India defeated New Zealand by 5 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the 3 match T20I series. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid's reign has got a decent start. The match should've been won comfortably for India but a few quick wickets at the death made it a little complicated for the men in blue.
New Zealand were put into bat first after losing the toss. Bhuvneshwar Kumar rolled back the years as he bowled two out swingers and then swung one into Daryl Mitchell to knock over his middle stump in the very first over. Martin Guptill scored a 42 ball 70 after a slow start. Mark Chapman got his first international half century as he scored 63 off 50 deliveries. Ravichandran Ashwin continued his great T20 form by picking up the wickets of Chapman and Glen Phillips, giving away just 23 runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar finished with figures of 2/24. Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Siraj picked up a wicket each as the Black caps could only manage 164/6 in 20 overs.
In reply India were 50 for no loss after 5 overs. Rohit Sharma took on the attack and smashed Trent Boult all over the park. Mitchell Santner did provide the Kiwis with a much needed breakthrough as he got rid of KL Rahul. Suryakumar Yadav walked in at number 3 and scored a magnificent 64. Boult did make a good recovery as he got rid of both SKY and Rohit. Shreyas Iyer couldn't hit the bowl cleanly and was dismissed by Tim Southee with India requiring 10 off the last over. Venkatesh Prasad was on strike in his international debut. He hit a boundary of his first ball but was dismissed in the very next one by Daryl Mitchell. In the end Rishabh Pant's run a ball 17 was enough to get India over the line.
The next game is on 19th November in Ranchi where India will be looking to wrap up the series. Jimmy Neesham who missed the first game due to an illness could be back. It will be interesting to see if India test out any of the newbies in the 2nd match or wait for the 3rd one.
