T20 World Cup 2021: Match 28, India vs New Zealand – Who Said What

India slipped to their second defeat in a row, facing another comprehensive loss, this time against New Zealand, who clinched the Dubai encounter by eight wickets and 5.3 overs to spare to muddle India’s qualification chances.

Making a couple of changes did not turn India’s fortune, as they were restricted for a paltry 110/7 after batting first. Suryakumar Yadav sat out with a back spasm, with Ishan Kishan replacing him, while Shardul Thakur came in at the expense of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The most worrying fact remains that India have managed to pick only two wickets in their two games combined thus far.

On October 31, their batters just did not show up, with each one of them following a similar pattern of dismissal: finding fielders in the deep while trying to go aerial. There were a couple of eyebrow-raising decisions made, easily questionable after they did not work, with India changing their opening combination and sending Rohit Sharma at No. 3.

Sharma, meanwhile, could have fallen for a golden duck had Adam Milne not grassed a chance in the deep, although he failed to capitalize, eventually falling for a run-a-ball 14 to Ish Sodhi, who also dismissed skipper Virat Kohli for an uncharacteristic 9 off 17. Before the departure of Rohit and Kohli, India had already lost KL Rahul (18 off 16) and Ishan Kishan (4 off 8) to Tim Southee and Trent Boult, respectively.

Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya did hang around for a while, but India could not score a single boundary for 71 balls (overs 6-17). Pant was cleaned up by Boult for 12 off 19 while Pandya perished holed out to long-off for 23 off 24. Ravindra Jadeja, whose 19-ball 26 was the most any individual Indian batter managed on the night, struck a couple of fours and a six but that was not enough to set New Zealand a run-a-ball target.

In their attempt to chase, New Zealand lost Martin Guptill early when he picked Shardul Thakur off a slower one from Jasprit Bumrah, but the next wicket came no sooner than nine overs, a period in which Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson added 72 without any fuss. Williamson played the second fiddle, striking below 100 for the larger part of his knock.

Mitchell, the aggressor, flayed the Indian bowlers, hitting four boundaries and three sixes before holing out to long-off off Bumrah only one short his half-century. Williamson stood unbeaten on 33 to finish the chase off.

Winning skipper Kane Williamson:

There’s always planning going into game, but this was a great performance against a side that puts up a fight. The surface wasn’t easy to find rhythm on, and the way the openers came out really set things up for the chase. It’s just about adapting to the conditions as well as we could. The way the spinners kept applying pressure was commendable and it was a complete performance. We play against strong teams all the time, and there are match-winners in every side, and we commit to our brand of cricket and today was a good example of that. Ish is an outstanding white-ball bowler, and he’s very experienced in playing T20 cricket, having played in different leagues all over the world, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the games in the league stages.

Losing skipper Virat Kohli:

To be brutal upfront, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat/ball. We obviously didn’t have much to play with the ball. We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and NZ had better intensity, body language. Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It’s most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not. When you play for India, there are loads of expectations. We are watched, people come to the stadium and everyone who plays for India needs to embrace that and cope with it. We haven’t done that in these two games, and that’s why we haven’t won. We have to be optimistic and positive and take calculated risks. We have to disconnect from the pressure and continue with our process, and play a positive brand of cricket. There’s a lot of cricket to play in the tournament.

Player of the Match Ish Sodhi:

I am usually big on pre-match prep, with this bubble life we haven’t been able to see the ground until the day we come to the ground. The wicket here was one we had to adapt to pretty quickly. It was very different to what we played in Sharjah. The boundary sizes were very different. A big part of our game is using the spin bowlers in the middle. It was set up by the powerplay bowlers. Tim Southee getting that wicket late in the powerplay was massive for us and allowed us to do our job through the middle. We had a tough loss against Pakistan, it was hard not to think this is a really big game. Coming into the game we wanted to play as good a game we possibly could. To play the way we did tonight is one to definitely celebrate.