Black Caps lose heartbreaker to India

India held its nerve with the balls running out to level its three-match T20 series against the Black Caps at 1-1 with a six-wicket victory on Monday.

New Zealand failed to reach triple figures, managing only 99-8 after winning the toss and opting to bat first at Lucknow in the second Twenty20 game. India scored 101-4 in 19.5 overs in reply.

New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner was his team’s top scorer with 19 not out from 23 deliveries. Medium quick Arshdeep Singh claimed 2-7 and legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal took 1-4, both from two overs, while Deepak Hooda and Kuldeep Yadav each returned 1-17 in four overs to help contain New Zealand.

“It was a great game of cricket,” Santner said following the match and despite the low totals. “We bowled well, got really close, another 10-15 runs would have helped.

“With the bounce out there, it looked quite challenging. When you are batting, you are not too sure what a good score is. We were looking at 140-160 when 120 would have been a good score.”

India’s No. 4, Suryakumar Yadav, top-scored with 26 not out off 31 balls. He and captain Hardik Pandya (15 not out off 20) came together with India at 70-4 halfway through the 15th over and paced the chase effectively, leaving the team needing 18 runs to win with 18 balls left.

India required six more runs at the start of the 20th over, which was bowled by Blair Tickner. Home fans had a nervous wait before Yadav - later named man of the match - struck a winning four off the penultimate delivery.

“We just needed one hit in the end, and it was very important to calm ourselves down,” Yadav said in describing the tense final over.

“Before I got the winning runs, Hardik came up to me and told me ‘you will hit the winning runs this ball’. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

Michael Bracewell took 1-13 in four overs for New Zealand.

India made one change to its team — Chahal in for pacer Umran Malik — while New Zealand opted for an unchanged side.

New Zealand won the first game at Ranchi by 21 runs.

The series decider is at Ahmedabad on Thursday.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission