chaitanyaraghav
Club Cricketer
New Zealand's Run Chase:
The kiwis needed 194 from 20 overs at 9.70 runs per over.It was a very difficult task for them to accomplish and they needed their big guns to fire if there was any chance of their comeback into the match.
Their innings started on a positive note with Jamie hitting two excellent boundaries of R.P.Singh.On the Ishant Sharma bowled with a good rythm and gave away only 4 runs in his first over.After two overs NZ were 12/0 and their asking rate was over 10 r.p.o! Some controlled bowling by the Indians restricted the kiwis from hitting any big shots and they were 34/0 after 6 overs and the powerplay was finished! Irfan Pathan came in as the third seamer and immediately provided with the much needed breakthrough and New Zealand slipped to 34/1 as he removed the dangerous looking Jamie for 20 and finished the over as a maiden! Dhoni's liking for his spinners paid off as Y.Pathan scalped Jesse Ryder for 20 in his first over and NZ slipped to 35/2 after 8 overs.India's tight bowling continued with NZ only being able to score 40 runs of their first 10 overs.The asking rate now rose up above 15 and it was highly unlikely that they could chase down the score! Irfan bowled splendidly and it was inspirational performance from him as he only a gave 1 run off his 3 overs! Yusuf also gave a meagre 5 runs off his 3 overs!
The first big six for NZ was hit off Harbhajan in the 13th over by Ross Taylor and he was on 10 runs from 9 balls with a four and a six. Harbhajan Struck the next ball as he took an easy catch himself and dismissed Taylor for 10 runs.NZ were 46/3 and the match was virtually over by then because the asking rate was way too high! Yusuf struck again for India as he removed Guptill for a duck and India were already celebrating and NZ were hopeless at 50/4 after 14 overs.The kiwis were not looking to score as they were placed at 56/4 after 16 overs and the asking rate was 34.50 which was highly impossible! The 17th over was a maiden bowled by Pathan and he finished with awesome figures of 4-2-2-1(o-m-r-w).He gave away only 2 runs in his 4 overs!The game was virtually over after the 17th over as the required run rate was 63 r.p.o! It was then that kiwis started attacking and he hit Harbhajan for 3 sixes and they took the score from 56/4 to 86/4 at the end of the 19th over.
New Zealand needed 108 runs off the last over being bowled by RP and he gave away 8 runs and took a wicket to wrap the match up for India.In the end India won very comfortably by 99 runs!
It was the strangest run chase i have seen because many teams fail because they keep losing wickets at regular intervals but this was not the case with NZ.They got off to a resaonable start but didnt capitalise it and they had wickets in hand but didnt go for the big shots! They finally started attacking when the game was virtually over.The kiwi think tank needs to sit down and plan their strategy and playing eleven right if it has to strike big in the main tournament!
So, in the end India have finally managed to break their strings of defeats vs kiwis in the t20's!
Man of the Match:
The Man of the match award was given to Irfan Pathan who made a usefull contribution with the bat and also bowled an excellent spell of swing bowling!
