World Twenty20: India shocked by New Zealand spinners
A dominant display from New Zealand’s spinners stunned hosts India and earned the Black Caps a 47-run victory in the opening match of the World Twenty20 Super 10 stage in Nagpur.
On a dry wicket, India – pre-tournament favourites in familiar conditions – looked likely to begin their campaign with a win when they limited their opponents to a seemingly modest total of 126-7.
However, the Black Caps’ decision to leave out pacemen Trent Boult and Tim Southee to accommodate additional slow bowlers paid handsome dividends, with Mitchell Santner (4-11) and Ish Sodhi (3-18) helping topple MS Dhoni’s men for just 79 in 18.1 overs – keeping New Zealand’s unbeaten record against India in T20s alive.
Following a tribute to former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe, who died earlier this month, the match got off to an eventful start as Martin Guptill was trapped lbw second ball by Ravichandran Ashwin (1-32) after hitting the first delivery of the match for six.
India performed strongly in the field to limit the scoring rate – never more evident than when Suresh Raina (1-16) dived low to his left in his follow-through to collect Corey Anderson’s shot down the ground before rolling and running out Ross Taylor (10) at the non-striker’s end.
Anderson’s controlled innings was brought to an end for 34 by a trademark yorker from Jasprit Bumrah (1-15), but Luke Ronchi provided late impetus, striking 12 from the last three balls to finish unbeaten on 21.
India’s reply immediately ran into problems, Shikhar Dhawan (1) removed by Nathan McCullum (2-15) before Santner claimed the scalps of Rohit Sharma (5) and Raina (1) inside three overs.
Virat Kohli (23) offered an encouraging initial response, but the ground was silenced when his outside edge from Sodhi’s first ball was caught behind by Ronchi, and both Hardik Pandya (1) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) soon followed as India found themselves seven wickets down for less than 50 runs for the first time in a T20I.
Captain Dhoni (30) tried to propel India forward and notched their only maximum in the 17th over, but the crowd filed out following his dismissal and Adam Milne (1-8) completed the rout by bowling Ashish Nehra (10) at the start of the 19th over – the only wicket to fall to pace in India’s innings.
