India vs New Zealand 2021-22, 2nd T20I: Half-centuries from Rohit, Rahul hand India series win against Kiwis

It was another splendid all-round performance by the Indians. On Friday, it annihilated New Zealand by seven wickets in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi. With this win, India has won the series, taking an unassailable 2-0 lead, with a game to go, thanks to the ruthless batting show by Rohit Sharma (50) and KL Rahul (69).

Winning the toss, Indian skipper Rohit opted to chase, keeping the dew factor in mind, while he made a change by handing pacer Harshal Patel the debut in place of fellow pacer Mohammed Siraj. As for New Zealand, captain Tim Southee made three changes, replacing Lockie Ferguson, Rachin Ravindra and Todd Astle with Adam Milne, James Neesham and Ish Sodhi.

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The Kiwi openers Martin Guptill (31) and Daryl Mitchell (31) started brilliantly, putting on 48 runs before the former fell to pacer Deepak Chahar in the fifth over of the Powerplay. A 31-run stand between Mitchell and Mark Chapman (21) ensued before spinner Axar Patel dismissed the latter in the ninth.

It was hereon when the Indians began to bowl aggressively despite a lot of dew around. At 90, pacer Harshal Patel got rid of Mitchell in the 12th, followed by Tim Seifert (13), 35 runs later, to spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the 16th. While Glenn Phillips (34) tried hard and put on a show, he failed to accelerate, with the same man dismissing him in the 17th, at 137.

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Three runs later, in the following over, James Neesham (3) fell to Bhuvneshwar, while the Kiwis finished on a par total of 153/6. The Indians put five bowlers into the attack. Although it was a consolidated effort, Harshal claimed a couple, while Ashwin was highly economical. In reply, the Indian openers itself sealed the deal for the host.

Rohit and Rahul contributed to a 117-run opening stand, owing to some clean and ferocious hitting. While Rahul scored his 16th T20I half-century, pacer Southee got rid of him in the 14th over. After 18 runs, Rohit departed to the same man in the 16th, followed by Suryakumar Yadav (1) in the same over after a couple of runs, cleaned up by the same man.

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However, it was too late for NZ, as Venkatesh Iyer (12*) and Rishabh Pant (12*) got the job done within the 18th over, winning by seven wickets. New Zealand utilised five bowlers, with Southee claiming three, besides being densely economical.
Brief scores: NZ 153/6 (Guptill- 31, Mitchell- 31, Phillips- 34; Harshal- 2/25) lost to IND 155/3 in 17.2 overs (Rahul- 65, Rohit- 55; Southee- 3/16) by seven wickets.