Picture : Twitter / ANI
India have taken a 2-0 lead in the five match T20 series against New Zealand. In the second T20 at Auckland India won emphatically by 7 wickets .
New Zealand Skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and batted first. But Indian bowlers kept the Kiwis on the back- foot by taking wickets regularly and did not allow them to get away. They were backed by smart , sharp fielding.
The Kiwis in- fact found runs hard to come by and could manage a below par total of 132 / 5 in their 20 overs. certainly not a total to defend against a powerful Indian batting line-up.
Martin Guptill (33) off 20 balls showed intent but fell when he was needed. Colin Munro struggled for his (26) , Kane Williamson fell for mere 14, Ross Taylor too did not find the going smooth and fell for 18. Tim Seifert threw his bat around for 33.
For India the bowling stood out . Ravindra Jadeja 2/ 18 (4 overs), Jasprit Bumrah 1/ 21 (4 overs), Shardul Thakur 1 / 21 ( 2 overs) he struggled with his line and length though. Shivam Dube 1/ 16 ( 2 overs)
India while chasing a modest target lost Rohit Sharma early again for (8). Skipper Virat Kohli fell for 11 at the total of 39. But Shreyas Iyer , once again came good with his 44 off 33 balls and gave K L Rahul the much needed support. As wickets around him fell, Rahul stood firm to hit back- to back fifties. Rahul was unbeaten on 57 and Shivam Dube unbeaten on 8 as India romped home by 7 wickets . India reached 135/ 3 in 17. 3 overs.
The Kiwis had a tough ask defending a modest total and the bowlers just did not have the target to defend.
For the Kiwis it was yet another bad in in office. 0-2 down. They would really need something special to bounce back in the series. Another loss could well end the series for them. Tim Southee 2/ 22 ( 3.3 overs), Ish Sodhi 1/ 33 ( 4 overs) were the only wicket- takers. Mitchell Santner 0/ 19 ( 4 overs), Blair Tickner 0/ 34 (3 overs), Hamish Bennett 0/ 29 (3 overs)
