India vs New Zealand 2nd T20I Highlights: SKY helps IND edge past valiant NZ, level series 1-1

Off the last ball of the 10th over! It is spin that gets Mitchell, New Zealand in complete disarray. 

Daryl Mitchell b Kuldeep Yadav 8 (13), New Zealand 48/4 in 10 overs

Kuldeep bowled the eight over and Sundar was supposed to bowl the ninth but he seems to be having some issue with the tapping on his fingers. The physio comes out and eventually, Sundar has to leave so Hooda bowls the ninth. Dary Mitchell has walked into the middle and he had an almighty struggle with spin before unleashing himself on Arshdeep in the last over of the New Zealand innings in the first T20I. New Zealand 40/3 in 8 overs.

Spinners are making merry here. All three of the Kiwi wickets have fallen while the batter has tried a reverse sweep to a spinner. The ball was fullish and sneaks underneath the bat as Phillips tried a reverse paddle. Bails fly everywhere. 

Phillips b Hooda 5 (10), New Zealand 35/3 in 6.5 overs

Two spinners and a pacer and it is the spinners who have got the dividends. Any doubts that may have come up about whether India got their bowling department right can be laid to rest. 

Conway attempts a sweep, it balloons back to the wicketkeeper for a regulation catch. Conway has gone up straightaway but the replays show that the ball had clearly taken his glove before going to the keeper. This is a huge wicket, Conway looked as comfortable as a batter could be against spin in that first T20I and he is gone. 

Devon Conway c Ishan Kishan b Washington Sundar 11 (14), New Zealand 28/2 in 4.4 overs

Big appeal for LBW off the second last ball and strangely enough, Chahal goes into a close conference with Ishan Kishan and slip Shubman Gill. Captain Hardik Pandya comes charging in to ask what in the world they are discussing when he is the one who needs to make the call for DRS to the umpire and in the end they decide not to review the decision. Pandya walks back with a smile on his face, asking his teammates to consider him to be included in future discussions as, as stated before, he is the only one who can ask for a review. Chahal deceives Chapman with a googly and that makes it a wicket-maiden to start with for the senior spinner. What a comeback this is for him. 

What an extraordinary first over this is, Allen totally at sea. The ball had spun right past his planted straight bat from leg for the first delivery and just fizzed past off stump. Allen tries a reverse sweep off the third after the second is also a dot ball. The delivery was around off, Allen missed and it hit is leg before hitting the stumps. 

Allen b Chahal 11 (10), New Zealand 21/1 in 3.3 overs

11 runs off that third over. Pandya now brings in Yuzvendra Chahal, let's see what he can get up to. 

Allen tries a sweep but gets another top edge off the next ball. This time, the ball flies miles over the keeper's head and almost goes for six infact. Some early luck for the Kiwi opener. 

Not the easiest of chances there for Ishan Kishan to grab. Pandya comes back for the third over, bangs the first one in and it takes a top edge off Allen. The ball darts towards Kishan but it keeps rising and he has to jump up with his right arm outstretched over his head, the ball ricochets off the glove and goes to the boundary. 

Five runs for Conway, one for Allen. Considering the conditions one does wonder early doors if today was the best day for India to reunite Kul-Cha instead of sticking with Umran Malik. Sanjay Manjrekar does say that there is a chance that the pitch may deteriorate later but India could be batting at that point. Washington Sundar bowls the second and so it is all-rounders who start the attack for India. 

Outswinger slightly overpitched Pandya for the fourth ball of that over, Conway lifts it over midwicket for the first boundary of the day. The temperature is set to drop and it is already quite chilly at Ekana and so one can expect more movement. 

Finn Allen and Devon Conway are out there, with the former facing up as usual. Captain Hardik Pandya opens the bowling for India. 

One more match for Shaw to sit out but even he would know that it is only a matter of time now. Today could be last chance saloon for Ishan Kishan, it is quite improbable that India will drop Gill from the squad at this point of time when he really is coming into his own in the other formats even if he fails again today. 

“We are gonna have a bat. The stats say that it's challenging to chase here. We'll try to get some runs on the board and see what it does. We had a tough one-day series, it was nice to bounce back with a win. Different guys stepping up at different times is always nice. It's never easy to beat India at home. That partnership between Surya and Hardik put them right back in the game. The key is to take wickets through the middle, that's the best way to slow them down. You got to take that (bigger ground dimensions) into account. Same team.”

“We were also thinking to bat first but bowling is also fine. This is a new team, but we have spoken about getting into the challenge and having to do difficult things. It can't difficult than this in a bilateral series, losing the first game and then two games on the line. Looking forward to this game. We are going to make mistakes and learn from them. It's important they come out here and enjoy the sport. We all should remember that we started playing this sport to enjoy, so I just want to pass that message to the team. It might turn. That's the reason we have made one change. Umran misses out, Yuzi comes in. KulCha is back, a lot of people wanted to see, they are wicket-takers. The way Washi is playing, we've got three proper spinners who can squeeze if required.”

Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner

Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh

New Zealand win the toss and choose to bat first. “Kul-Cha is back,” says Hardik Pandya. 

Ajit Agarkar says there is a "tacky look" to the pitch. "It is a red soil pitch like Mumbai. If there is grip or movement off the pitch it will be quick and the batter will not have time. Fairly firm pitch. Team batting second would be hoping for dew, if not, this could be difficult to bat on," he says. Meanwhile Danny Morrison says that it is a 69m square on one side, 67m on the other side and 77m today for the straight hit. 

Conway has been a revelation in all formats for New Zealand ever since he made his debut for them in November 2020. In T20Is, he has an average of 48.88 having scored 1222 in 33 innings at a healthy strike rate of 131.25. In Tests he has an average of 54.76, having scored four centuries in 22 innings and in ODIs, he averages 45.81 with three centuries in 17 innings. Conway is as consistent as they come. 

Since scoring that extraordinary double century against Bangladesh in December, Ishan's scores in the last seven innings in both ODIs and T20Is read 37, 2, 1, 5, 8 n.o., 17 and 4. If one just considers the T20Is, it's been a while since he last scored a fifty -- against South Africa on June 14, 2022.

Cricket can be a very cruel game, T20 cricket even more so and that was very much in display during that last over of the New Zealand innings in the first T20. Arshdeep Singh overstepped off the first ball that also went for six and the next three just flew away. He then nailed three yorkers but even if he took a hat-trick in all those three balls, the damage had been done. 

Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi

Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan have hardly impressed in recent matches but it will be a surprise if either of them get the drop today considering the runs they have been on in ODI cricket. But if they don't click today, playing Shaw in the final match seems like a rather obvious choice.