Image Source : BCCI
India won the opening match of the T20I series by 48 runs against New Zealand and lead the series 1-0. During the match when India were batting first, Hardik Pandya smashed a straight six to Mitchell Santner in the 15th over. The Bhojpuri commentary for that shot went viral as the fans enjoyed the passion. Despite many of them not understanding the language the vibe and excitement made it very watchable and entertaining. Watch the video here.
Hardik Pandya was dismissed for 22 but, India scored 238 runs in the first innings on the back of a terrific 84 from Abhishek Sharma. He also broke the record for fastest to 5000 T20 runs during that knock. India got a strong finish as Rinku Singh smashed Daryl Mitchell in the final over the innings. It was an excellent batting performance from the Men in Blue.
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.
