New Zealand continued their winning run against India in T20Is as they handed the hosts a 47-run defeat in the opening game of the 2016 ICC World T20 in Nagpur. After winning the toss and electing to bat, Kane Williamson's side only managed 126/7.
That was thanks in large parts to Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi and when it came to the bowling, the Kiwi spinners, who had the trust of their captain, came to the party as they picked nine of the 10 Indian wickets that fell to hand India their fifth consecutive loss against the Kiwis in T20Is.
Mitchell Santner was the Man of the Match. He said: “There was a bit of spin out there, they bowled well to keep us to 120, that was below par, but we got stuck in and I’m delighted with the win. Jadeja was really spinning it, starting was hard, trying to get to 130 140 but in the end 126 proved to be enough.”
Dhoni disappointed with his side's batting performance
MS Dhoni said: "I think it was a low scoring wicket, I thought we restricted them to a good total, the batting let us down, the shot selection kept putting pressure on the batsmen coming in. They bowled well, exploited the conditions, but we lacked adaptability, we could have applied ourselves a little more. The batting let us down."
Kane Williamson said: "Very pleased, tough surface, with the bat whatever score was going to be tough, we would have liked to have a few more. We wanted to be aggressive at the start, the format dictates that we may reflect on that though and try and do it better.”
“(on selection) that's tough they are world class bowlers, but we had to look at the conditions and it came off today. The message to the bowling attack. we knew the best way to take wicket is to be patient and apply pressure and we did that well."
Here are the reactions from the cricketing fraternity:
Pitch was the major talking point, Brian Lara:
England all-rounder Ben Stokes:
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson:
Former England bowler Matthew Hoggard:
Mark Butcher:
Former England captain Michael Vaughan:
David Lloyd:
Iain O'Brien:
There was also plenty of praise for Kane Williamson and New Zealand's tactics: Matthew Hoggard:
Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell:
Former Australian international Tom Moody:
Alan Butcher:
Former England captain Michael Vaughan:
Former Indian batsman Subramaniam Badrinath:
There was plenty of praise for Suresh Raina's fielding, from Jonty Rhodes:
It all started quite well for India, as former English bowler Alex Tudor observed:
Legendary Indian spinner Anil Kumble:
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