New Zealand vs India: We were 15-20 runs short, India were clinical - Kane Williamson

KL Rahul ensured that he stayed till the end and took his team past the victory line.

Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first on a surface which he expected would be sluggish. He was proven right, but the Indian bowlers were on song as they restricted the hosts to 132 in their first innings. This was never going to be enough to ruffle the power Indian batting order. The chase was powered by KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer as India cantered home to a convincing win.

“It was a tough day and the wicket was quite different from the first game. As a batting unit, we needed probably another 15-20 runs more for a competitive total. Credit to the Indian bowlers for the way they restricted us, credit to the Indian side that put us under pressure and outplayed us in all the departments,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said after the match.

New Zealand did put on early pressure on India when they dismissed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma within first five overs. However, KL Rahul decided to drop anchor and along with Shreyas Iyer took the game away from the hosts.

“Even if we had 130 on the board on a small ground, we knew we had to take early wickets. I think with the spinners, we were able to take the game to a point where something had to give. They showed the experience and took the game deeper, they were clinical,” Williamson added.

In what his side needed to do better in the remaining games, Williamson said that they needed to bat well and keep moving forward as a group.

“We need to bat a little better perhaps. That’s something we would like to do. I don’t think the surface changed too much. We needed to take a couple of wickets on the sluggish wicket. We were probably 15-20 runs than where we wanted to be. We need to be better in the next match. We need to keep moving forward as a group as we’re up against a tough side like India. That’s a great thing, we get to test ourselves against the best," the New Zealand captain said.