India vs New Zealand 2019, 1st T20I - Tim Seifert, Bowlers Take Hosts to Comfortable Win

New Zealand cruised to a comfortable win against India as they won by a gargantuan margin of 80 runs in the first T20I at Westpac Stadium, Wellington on Wednesday. The Kiwis Men’s team followed the footsteps of their Women side as they had won the opening match by 23 runs. Hence, it is a good start for the hosts after they had succumbed to ignominious defeat of 1-4 in the ODI series.

This is India’s biggest loss in a T20I game if we take into account the number of runs margin. Furthermore, New Zealand continues its domination against India in the shortest format of the game. This was New Zealand’s seventh win against Men in Blue in T20 Cricket.

India vs New Zealand 2019: New Zealand innings:

New Zealand opening pair of Tim Seifert and Colin Munro gave a flying start to their side. Both openers catapulted their attack from the get-go and started their innings in the topmost gear. Tim Seifert was the aggressor whereas Colin Munro also timed the ball to perfection. The right and left-handed batting pair added 66 runs in the powerplay overs. The Kiwis opening pair scored 86 runs for the opening stand to give a fine platform to their side.

Munro, who scored 34 runs laced with two fours and as many sixes was dismissed by Krunal Pandya. The southpaw batsman could not clear the long-on fielder as Vijay Shankar took a good grab. However, Tim Seifert continued to attack and put on a carnage on the Indian bowlers. The right-hander who is just nine T20I matches old found the gaps with perfection.

Seifert added 48 runs with his skipper Kane Williamson. In fact, India could have got rid of New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman earlier when he was on 71, had Dinesh Karthik taken a simple catch. However, the stumper could add 13 more runs to his score as Khaleel Ahmed bowled an accurate full-length delivery.

Seifert scored a quickfire knock of 84 runs from 43 balls with the help of seven fours and half-a-dozen sixes. Meanwhile, Kane Williamson played a nice little cameo as the talisman right-hander scored a 22-ball 34. The flamboyant batsman was able to clear the boundary ropes on three occasions.

Meanwhile, Daryl Mitchell didn’t have an ideal debut as he was dismissed for eight runs. Dinesh Karthik, who had bungled a catch earlier, was able to take a spectacular catch at the boundary ropes. Karthik jumped up to bag the catch, got rid of the ball to fall over the ropes with the momentum and then came back to complete the catch.

Furthermore, Ross Taylor also scored a good knock 23 runs off just 14 balls with the help of two sixes. Moreover, Scott Kuggeleijn provided the finishing touches to the New Zealand innings as he scored a quickfire knock of 20 runs from just seven balls to help his side finish at 219-6.

On the other hand, all the Indian bowlers were on the expensive side. Khaleel Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 48 and 47 runs respectively in their four overs quota. Furthermore, Hardik Pandya gave away 51 runs in his allotted four overs.

India vs New Zealand 2019: India’s Innings:

India’s opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan got a reprieve when Lockie Fergusson could not time his jump to perfection at the boundary ropes. Subsequently, Dhawan was able to take 16 runs from the second over to get the Indian innings going.

However, Lockie Ferguson was able to rectify his mistake in the next over when he took a good low catch while diving forward. Rohit Sharma could not find his timing on a pull shot against Tim Southee and Ferguson did the rest.

Vijay Shankar was promoted to number three. Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan was beaten for pace as Lockie Ferguson was able to find the blockhole. Shankar was able to time the ball with perfection but India could not get going as they keep losing wickets in a cluster.

Rishabh Pant was done by Mitchell Santner’s straight ball when he went for the big shot. The asking rate was going up and the Indian batsmen had to take their risks. Dinesh Karthik went for the sweep shot but Tim Southee took a good catch while diving to his right.

Hardik Pandya smashed a four towards the extra cover region but could not repeat the same success when he found Daryl Mitchell at the boundary ropes. Ish Sodhi dragged the ball wide towards the off-stump and Pandya went for the big shot. Thus, India was left tottering at 77-6 with MS Dhoni and Krunal Pandya left with too much to do.

India skittled out for 139 to lose the match by a big margin.