New Zealand bamboozled India at Nagpur

Horses for courses strategy paved way for New Zealand’s surprising victory over pre tournament favorites India. Many eyebrows were raised when New Zealand doped their ace fast bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult and decided to go in the match with an inexperienced spin trio of Mitchell Santner, Inderbir Singh Sodhi and Nathan Mccullam. New Zealand think tank has confidence in their spinners and they instead of playing with big names, played with players who are suitable for the conditions inside the ground.

New Zealand left out Tim Southee and Trent Boult to accommodate three spinners on a dry pitch against India in the World T20 Super 10s opener (Picture : ESPNCricinfo)

On a turning track of Nagpur, spin trio of New Zealand played havoc over strong batting line up and dismissed them for a paltry score of 79 in 18.1 overs. The authority of New Zealand spinners is evident from the fact that they only conceded 44 runs and picked 9 Indian wickets. Only two batsmen of India were able to reach double figures. On the contrary India’s spinners conceded 74 runs for their 3 wickets.

The indifference performance of spinners particularly that of Ashwin and impatience of batsmen are the reasons for India’s bizarre defeat in tournaments inaugural match.

When New Zealand was restricted to a total of 126, everyone was unanimous that chasing this target will be a walk in the park for India’s mighty batting line up but unfortunately this probable walk in the park soon turned into a mayhem when India lost half their side for only 39 runs.

Ish Sodhi got the key wicket of Virat Kohli off his first ball, as the hosts lost half their side for 39 in only the ninth over (Picture : ESPNCricinfo)

‘If you dig a hole for others, you’re sure to fall in it yourself’. This is what exactly happened to India today. They prepared a dusty turning track to squash New Zealand but instead the pitch turned out to be a disaster for India’s own batsmen.

Today’s match showed that playing spin bowling is an art and even India’s batsmen who are considered best players of spin bowling  forget this art.

In my view playing spin bowling requires patience but when overs are running away fast, it is difficult for batsman to show patience and play a grafting innings.

I hope that International Cricket Council look into today’s pitch and flex  its muscle to stop India’s grounds men from preparing such ‘Win the toss, Win the match’ like pitches in upcoming matches of T20 world cup. This sort of dry turning pitch kills the contest and is not a good exhibition of cricket.

For future matches we need a, more neutral pitch which has something for both batsmen and bowlers and can give lot of entertainment to crowd inside the stadium and millions of fans watching on televisions around the globe.

As a host, India started the One day international World cup of 1987 with a surprising one run defeat against Australia. That victory proved such a morale booster for Australia that from no- hopers; they become Champions of the world. I hope the victory against India has similar positive mantra over New Zealand and they end the tournament as champions of cricket’s shortest format

About Author

Khurram Zia Khan has been working as a public relations consultant since the past 12 years and possesses a flair for writing. Quite a number of his articles have been published in various publications over the years and he is also a regular contributor for the blogs of The Express Tribune, The New, Daily Times and Dawn. Khan is fond of watching and analyzing TV talk shows and reading newspaper columns which further help him form his own independent opinion about national and international issues and eventually voice his educated opinion through writing. 

twitter : @KhurramZiaKhan