India 209 for 3 (Suryakumar 82*, Kishan 76, Sodhi 1-34) beat New Zealand 208 for 6 (Santner 47*, Ravindra 44, Kuldeep 2-35) by seven wickets
After being sent in in dewy conditions, New Zealand, too, had made a blazing start. Even though only one of their top five crossed 25, each of them struck in excess of 140. India made a brief comeback in the middle overs but Mitchell Santner’s 47 not out off 27 balls lifted them to 208 for 6. At the post-match presentation, Santner said they probably needed 300. He was only half-joking.
Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma managed just six runs between them. It should have been zero had Conway not put down Samson at deep square leg off Matt Henry and parried the ball over the boundary line. Samson, though, couldn’t capitalise on the reprieve and was caught at mid-on in the same over. Abhishek was out for a first-ball duck when he flicked Jacob Duffy to deep square leg. Conway made no mistake this time.
New Zealand were firm favourites at that point. But Kishan had other ideas. He hit Zak Foulkes for three fours and a six in the third over, which also featured three wides and a no-ball. There was no looking back. Kishan raced to his fifty off just 21 balls, improving Abhishek’s record from the first T20I of the fastest T20I fifty by an India batter against New Zealand by one ball. By the end of the powerplay, India were setting pretty at 75 for 2.
That both Santner and Ish Sodhi turn the ball into the left-hand batter also played into Kishan’s hands. He hit a six off each of them. Sodhi induced a miscue in the tenth over but by then the required rate had come down to 7.36.
Suryakumar back among the runs
Throughout his batting slump last year, Suryakumar maintained he was not out of form, only out of runs. In this match, he found runs too. There were signs of it in the first T20I when he scored 32 off 22. Here, he looked close to his best. With Kishan going berserk, he did not have much strike initially. But it also allowed him to take his time – he was on a run-a-ball 10 before he swept Santner over short fine leg for four in the eighth over.
The runs came in a torrent thereafter. In the next over, he smashed four fours and a six off Foulkes. Even after Kishan fell, he did not let the scoring rate drop. He brought up his fifty – his first in 24 T20I innings – in 23 balls and hit boundaries not just behind the wicket and on the leg side but also through the off side. He had luck on his side as well. Mark Chapman parried a difficult chance over the boundary line when he was on 43, Santner dropped a dolly on 64, and a leading edge on 70 just evaded backward point. But you would imagine he was due some. In the company of Shivam Dube, who scored 36 not out off 18, he took India into a 2-0 series lead.
