Team India exhaled a breath of relief after winning the second Twenty20 International (T20I) against New Zealand by a score of six wickets to tie the three-game series at 1-1.
After being given the opportunity to bowl first, the team captained by Hardik Pandya totally dominated the opposing team, the visitors, and limited them to 99/8 thanks to the efforts of the entire bowling unit.
Despite this, the home team struggled a little bit in their pursuit of the target, as they ended up losing their openers Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan with only 46 runs on the board.
After that, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya steadied the innings and brought the squad over the finish line with one ball to spare.
Suryakumar and Yuzvendra Chahal got into a humorous back-and-forth after he evened the score in the series 1-1. Chahal, who bowls right-arm spin, grabbed the credit for being Suryakumar’s batting instructor during their exchange.
In the video that was uploaded to BCCI.tv, Chahal addressed Suryakumar, “Did you watch my red-ball video at the Ranji Trophy? I taught you to play 370 degrees, but this was a very different pitch.”
Suryakumar answered, “In point of fact, I have been thinking back on all that you told me in the last series.
And I’d love it if you could educate me more about batting and show me how I can get better at it. Viewers, we ask that you listen very seriously and not regard what you are about to hear as a joke: our brother is the batting coach for this team. He enlightens me on every subject.”
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav appeared in the video as well, and he complimented Chahal on his recent achievement of being India’s all-time leader in T20I wicket-taking.
In the second Twenty20 international match against New Zealand, Chahal grabbed one wicket, bringing his total number of scalps to 91. This put him ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had 90 scalps.
Coming into the match, Indian spinners flourished on a turning track before the batters made heavy weather of a small target to register a scrappy win over New Zealand in the second Twenty20 International that took place in Lucknow on Sunday. This victory levelled the series between the two countries.
On a pitch that helped them, the bowling unit consisting of Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, and Kuldeep Yadav did very well to restrict a self-destructing New Zealand team to 99 for eight, which was New Zealand’s lowest total against India in the shortest format.
It was supposed to be an easy run chase, but the top-order batsmen, which included Ishan Kishan (19 runs off 32 balls), Shubman Gill (11 runs off 9 balls), and Rahul Tripathi (13 runs off 18 balls), had a difficult time once again due to the spin-friendly conditions.
Hardik Pandya (15 not out off 20) and Suryakumar Yadav (26 not out off 31) were the ones to get the side across the finish line in the end, and they did it with a ball to spare and six wickets in hand.
On Wednesday, the game that will decide the series will take place in Ahmedabad.
