New Delhi: Openers KL Rahul (49-ball 65) and Rohit Sharma (36-ball 55) stitched a solid 100-plus opening stand after remarkable bowling effort from bowlers to help India beat New Zealand by seven wickets at JSCA International Stadium on Friday and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. As much as like the first T20I, it was the bowling that won the game for India.
With presence of dew right from the 1st over of the match, Indian bowlers came up with a spirited bowling performance to restrict Black Caps below 155. For New Zealand, Trent Boult was the pick of bowlers as he ended up with figures of (3/16).
Earlier, Rohit Sharma invited New Zealand to bat first after winning his second straight toss in the series. Brilliant bowing display from the Indian bowlers restricted New Zealand to 153/6. The due was so much at Ranchi that bowlers had to use towel to dry the ball after almost every delivery but despite this, the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel put up a top show in the middle overs to keep Kiwis on backfoot.
Harshal Patel, playing his first ever T20 International for India, was brilliant as well with the white ball. The young paceman kept the Kiwi batters under check with an attacking bowling display and ended up taking two wickets for just 25 runs. While Glenn Philips scored the most 34 runs for his team, Martin Guptill and Daryl Mitchell contributed with 31 runs apiece.
IND playing XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel
NZ playing XI: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert (wk), James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee (c), Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult