India - New Zealand Series

India v New Zealand, 2nd T20: NZ win by 5 wickets

India lost the second T20 match against New Zealand at Wellington, thus going down 2-0 in the two match series. But unlike last time, this match was quite close.

Put in to bat by New Zealand, India made 149 runs for the loss of six wickets with the help of Yuvraj Singh’s fifty. Iain O’Brien and Ian Butler finished with two wickets apiece, while Daniel Vettori and Tim Southee picked one each.

Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag started the innings cautiously before Sehwag was out for 24 runs.Suresh Raina was out for duck and Gambhir soon joined them in the dressing room. Yuvraj Singh, who failed to score big in the last match, slammed a half-century. His third T20 fifty, first against Kiwis, was studded with three 4s and four 6s and helped in steadying the Indian innings. After that Yusuf Pathan failed to open his account and Ravindra Jadeja added 27 runs with his skipper for the sixth wicket. India captain MS Dhoni remained not out with 28 runs, while Irfan Pathan took his unbeaten score to 15 runs from 9 runs with a massive six off the last ball.

Chasing a target of 150 runs, New Zealand scored the winning run off the last ball of their innings.

In pursuit of the total, New Zealand openers Jesse Ryder and McCullum accumulated 53 runs in 4.4 runs with Ryder making 26 runs with help of three 4s and two 6s before a Zaheer-delivery came in enough to take a faint edge of his bat and clip the bails in a swift-soft manner. Next out was Guptill, who fell prey to a dubious decision of LBW out by umpire Gary Baxter, out for 10 runs. After Guptill’s dismissal, Ross Taylor joined McCullum and the duo added 56 runs for the third wicket. Taylor scored 27 runs before a beautiful yorker from Irfan Pathan in the 18th over castled him. Off the very next delivery, Irfan sent burly Kiwi all-rounder Jacob Oram back for a duck. These two wickets brought India back in the game. Soon Yuvraj Singh dismissed Neil Broom for 5 runs. India looked to be in a sound position but ‘Man of the Match’ McCullum had other ideas and won the match for his team off the last ball of the game.

The five match ODI series starts on 3rd March 2009.

Tags: India, new zealand