IND vs NZ 2021: Taking game to the last over was a positive, says Tim Southee

New Zealand’s stand-in T20I captain Tim Southee believes taking the first T20I against India to the last over a positive for them at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Wednesday.

India went on to beat New Zealand by five wickets to draw first blood in the three-match T20I series.

New Zealand posted a fighting score of 164 runs after they were put in to bat by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. In fact, at one stage it looked like India will cruise to the total as 18 runs were needed off the final 15 balls.

However, the New Zealand bowlers were able to bowl some dot balls and the hosts then required 10 runs off the final over. Venkatesh Iyer, who was making his debut for the Men in Blue, hit a four on the first ball he faced to release a bit of pressure. Rishabh Pant then scored a boundary on the third ball to take India over the line.

Earlier in the match, New Zealand did well to post 164 runs despite getting off to a slow start in the powerplay overs. Mark Chapman scored a fine knock of 63 runs off 50 balls and became the first player to score T20I fifties for two nations as he had earlier played for Hong Kong.

Furthermore, Martin Guptil scored a blistering knock of 70 runs off just 42 balls and scored three fours and four sixes in his inning. Southee feels it was a good score as they had got off to a slow start. Moreover, Mitchell Santner also did a great job with the ball as he dismissed KL Rahul and conceded only 19 runs in his quota of four overs.

However, there is no denying the fact that New Zealand did a fine job with the ball to take the game into the final over and Southee reckons it was a positive to take for the team.

Tim Southee said in the post-match presentation, “You always want to come out on the right side of the result. We played our best cricket and took it deep. Mark Chapman hasn’t played a lot of cricket of late, and to play the way he played was very pleasing to the side.

It was a game of fine margins. It was a good score, we wanted to start well with the ball but we did well to claw back in the middle, and obviously, Mitch Santner was outstanding with the ball, and to take it deep and take it to the last over I guess that was a positive as well.

It’s always tough with different grounds and stuff like that but we set high expectations ourselves, a little bit off in the field and it’s an area we pride ourselves on and that we have been very good at in the last few months. It’s always tough, Daryl has got a lot of training and always wants to bowl but probably didn’t leave him enough runs in the end. Guptill played nicely, Santner showed his class as well”.

The second T20I between the two teams will be played at Ranchi on Friday.