KOLKATA: India skipper Rohit Sharma threw a challenge to his spinners on winning the toss for the third time in the just-concluded T20I series against New Zealand at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday. He decided to bat. It was like daring Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal, who had replaced the in-form Ravichandran Ashwin, to show what they can do with a dew-coated ball.
“Wanted to challenge ourselves in challenging conditions,” the skipper explained his decision. And he set them up nicely with another masterclass, a 56 in just 31 balls in India’s 184 for 7.
Axar responded brilliantly, grabbing three wickets even before the visitors could settle down. His first spell of three wickets for two runs in two overs put India firmly on the path to registering a clean sweep.
They eventually did so, bundling out New Zealand for 111 in 17.2 overs and Sourav Ganguly’s statement “It is difficult to beat India in India” sounded so true.
It surely helped that Axar was brought into the attack in the third over, when the ball was relatively dry. Although Chahal was introduced in the very next over, the leg-break bowler had to wait a little longer to produce his charm.
New Zealand were tottering at 30 for 3 in no time and it would have been much worse had Deepak Chahar not dropped an easy chance offered by Martin Guptill off his own bowling. Guptill, on 16 then, went on to score a 36-ball 51, peppered with some big hits. But then, New Zealand never really recovered from those early jolts.
Opener Guptill was New Zealand’s second success story of the day after stand-in skipper Mitchell Santner. The left-arm spinner, who walked in at the toss in place of Tim Southee, finished with three for 27. More importantly, he applied the brakes when India seemed to be running away with the game.
For India, Sunday’s dead rubber was always going to be a platform to experiment and they did not disappoint. With Ishan Kishan walking in alongside Rohit to open the innings, another inform player KL Rahul was being rested and an outstanding opening combination was being broken.
The Kishan experiment paid off as long as it lasted, which was the powerplay zone of six overs. Both Rohit and Kishan went after the bowlers, with the skipper smacking some delectable shots. Kishan too had his moments, although with not as much authority as his senior partner.
The start of the innings, however, had its share of uncertainties with Trent Boult testing Rohit in the innings’ first over. Ball 1: An lbw appeal. Ball 2: An edge to the boundary. Ball 3: An intended slash to the fence and Rohit was on his way.
Sixty-nine in six overs of pace without losing any wickets, and India were headed for something big. The dramatic turn happened in the very next over, with Santner removing Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in his first over. A few more failures and India’s middle-order was wobbling again, even though Rohit was going great guns.
The skipper had to leave following a reflex catch by Ish Sodhi off his own bowling. The ball meant for the boundary got stuck in Sodhi’s outstretched left hand.
The six overs following powerplay fetched 39 runs and cost India four wickets. Although the run-rate had plummeted, India still had enough on board, thanks to the blitz at the start. There were adequate reasons not to panic and more proof of the importance of a great start. The two Iyers – Shreyas and Venkatesh – scored briskly before Deepak Chahar’s cameo ensured India crossed the 180-mark to set up a challenging target.