Picture Credit: Twitter
The ongoing match is a do-or-die one for both India and New Zealand at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. After defeats against Pakistan for both the nations in their respective first matches, the winner of this game is likely to join Pakistan as the team to proceed into the final four from Group 2. With so much at stake for both sides, New Zealand is not giving anything away easily to India.
While there was a dropped catch from Adam Milne early on the match, from there on the Kiwis have been spot on. However, one effort that stood out was by James Neesham in the 14th over. While Ish Sodhi had delivered a ball on the shortish length on the leg stump, batter Hardik Pandya wanted to middle his pull stoke but went through his shot a bit too early.
This led the ball to go miles up in the air where it stayed for a good few seconds and in came sprinting Neesham towards his left and put in a jump at the end. While he got the ball and was not able to complete what would have been a fine catch at deep backward square, he managed to keep the ball in the field of play and save five valuable runs for his side.
Check out the video of the catch here:
Earlier India captain Virat Kohli announced at the toss that while Suryakumar Yadav was replaced by Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur came in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Kohli also made it clear that SKY's omission was a forced one since he had a back spasm. Later the BCCI also confirmed the same in a statement.
However, despite the changes, India have not been able to get off to an ideal start in this game. After being asked to bat first, India lost both their openers- Kishan and KL Rahul- inside the powerplay before Rohit Sharma was also dismissed inside the first 10 overs. Even captain Kohli departed in the first ball of the 11th over, which means that India could be staring at another low score in this innings.
With India reeling at 78/5 with 4 overs to go, it is a massive advantage to New Zealand at this stage.