New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Devon Conway, on the pitch with their pads, ensured their team chase down the easy target of 111 runs in 14.3 overs against India. In their second match of the Super 12 game in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, India lost the toss and had to bat first in the Dubai International Stadium.
India, despite having a strong batting line-up, failed to score an appealing target for the men in black. At the end of the powerplay, India had registered 35 runs on the scoreboard along with losing 2 important wickets of opening batsmen. Ishan Kishan went out of the ground at 4 after being caught by Daryl Mitchel and bowled by Trent Boult, while KL Rahul was dismissed at 18 by Tim Southee and caught by Daryl Mitchel.
In a not-so-impressive start by Rohit Sharma, he was dropped at 0. He went on to score just 14 runs off 14 balls before he was sent back by Ish Sodhi. In no time, Sodhi got the prized wicket of captain Virat Kohli for nine runs and the suit was followed by Rishabh Pant who lost his wicket to Adam Milne scoring 12 runs. Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya went a little far than their previous batsmen and scored 26 and 23 respectively. With the stuttering batting order, India was seen winding up their innings with 110 runs on the scoreboard in 20 overs.
In the second innings, Jasprit Bumrah was the sole bowler to take wickets for the team, but not enough to win the match. After an early wicket by Jasprit Bumrah that removed the opening batsman Martin Guptill at 20, Daryl Mitchell went on to score 49 runs over 35 balls. The New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson chased down the target scoring 33 runs off 31 balls alongside Devon Conway to win their first match in ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Notably, India played with two changes in their playing XI. Ishan Kishan and Shardul Thakur were in for Surya Kumar Yadav and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar respectively.
