After put into bat first, the Black Caps got off to a poor start as Daryl Mitchell was dismissed for a duck by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman formed a crucicial partnership of 109 runs for the second wicket to help New Zealand post a competitive total on the board.
Guptill looked in good touch and scored 70 off 42 balls, hitting four sixes and three fours with a strike rate of 166.67.
During the first innings, a banter took place in the 18th over bowled by Deepak Chahar, when Guptill hit a no-look six off the Indian seamer while staring at him. Well, it didn’t take much time for Chahar to make a comeback.
The right-armer, this time, bowled a slower delivery to Guptill, who attempted to go over the top once again. The ball got the elevation but not the distance and landed safely in the hands of Shreyas Iyer. Now, Chahar gave a death stare back to Guptill, while the latter started walking back to the pavilion.
Hilariously, after the match, Chahar was awarded ‘Kamaal ka Moment’ for his stare look and ended up winning INR 1 Lakh.
While chasing 165 runs for victory, Rohit and KL Rahul added fifty runs for the opening wicket in just five overs. But Michael Santer soon dismissed Rahul on 15. Then, Suryakumar Yadav joined Rohit and the duo took the hosts’ close to the target.
Rohit was two runs short of his half-century when he lost his wicket in the 14th over bowled by Trent Boult. Suryakumar continued to thrash the Black Caps bowling lineup before getting out in the 17th over.
Even in the dominant position of the match, quick departures of Shreyas and Venkatesh Iyer gave New Zealand a chance to pull back the game in their favour. The game seemed to be slipping from India’s hands, but Rishabh Pant finished it off in style and gave his side a lead of 1-0 in the three-match series.
For his crucial knock, Suryakumar was adjudged with the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
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