Team India took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series against New Zealand with their emphatic 7-wicket win over the Kiwis at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Raipur on Friday.
Ishan Kishan’s 76-run innings and Suryakumar Yadav’s unbeaten 82-run knock helped India chase down the target of 209 with 28 deliveries to spare.
India won the toss and opted to put the Kiwis to bat first as the visitors, who opened the game with Devon Conway and Tim Seifert, went on to put up a 43-run stand before Harshit Rana removed the former for 19 off 9 deliveries before Varun Chakravarthy dismissed the latter, for 24 off 13, shortly after.
Rachin Ravindra and G’enn Phillips put up a 55-run stand for the third wicket before Kuldeep Yadav
sent Phillips back to the hut for 19 runs, while southpaw Rachin kept ticking at the other end.
Shivam Dube got rid of Daryll Mitchell for 18 off 11 before Kuldeep doubled his kitty with the scalp of Rachin for 44 off 26 deliveries with Arshdeep Singh taking his catch.
Skipper Mitchell Santner came up with a potent late knock to help the Kiwis give a lift to their scorecard, while Hardik Pandya sent Mark Chapman back to the dugout for 10 off 13.
Santner remained unbeaten on 47 off just 27 in an innings sprinkled with six 4s and a maximum, with Zakary Foulkes for company at the other end as NZ posted a total in the surplus of the 200-run mark.
India opened the chase of 209 runs with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma, but were dealt early blows as Samson’s wicket went to Matt Henry in the penultimate delivery of the first over, before Sharma succumbed to Jacob Duffy for a golden duck in the first delivery of the second over.
Kishan and Suryakumar steadied the ship with brilliants knocks as they duo went on to put up a 122-runs stand as Kishan blazed past the half-century mark with 11 fours and 4 sixers before falling to Ish Sodhi.
Suryakumar remained at the cease to bring up his fifty and take India past the target with just under five overs to spare as Shivam Dube stood unbeaten alongside his skipper at 36 off 18 deliveries.
