Picture Credit : BCCI
India beat New Zealand by 48 runs in the first match of the T20I series in Nagpur on Wednesday. It was a clinical performance from the Men in Blue as they were excellent throughout the game. New Zealand had won the toss and had no hesitation in bowling first. India started well but lost a couple of wickets and found themselves at 27/2. Ishan Kishan who made a comeback to the Indian team after nearly two years failed with the bat as he scored just eight runs. Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav put up a good partnership as India recovered well after the early blows.
Abhishek Sharma went past 5000 T20 runs and broke records on his way to a spectacular 84 of just 33 balls. Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed for 32 runs. Abhishek Sharma was also caught in the deep for 84 runs. Then India kept losing wickets as Shivam Dube fell for just 9 runs while Hardik Pandya scored 22 runs and got out. Rinku Singh played a great cameo scoring 44 runs from 20 balls, as India posted a massive total of 238/7.
It was an uphill task and New Zealand were rocked early as Arshdeep Singh sent back Conway for a duck and Ravindra also got out leaving New Zealand at 1 run for the loss of 2 wickets. Glenn Phillips scored a half century and was excellent but found no support from others.
New Zealand eventually lost the game. The Indian bowlers did a good job with Varun Chakaravarthy picking up two wickets and Dube bowled the last over and picked up two more wickets. Abhishek Sharma was the player of the match as India took a 1-0 lead in this series.
