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After a one-sided victory in the ODI series, the Indian team locked horns with New Zealand in the first T20 International of the three-match T20I series.
India won the toss and elected to field first in the first match of the T20I series. The visitors fielded an XI consisting of three all-rounders and three wicket-keepers. The black caps had a scintillating start as the openers Tim Seifert and Colin Munro scored 66 runs in the first powerplay.
Young Tim Seifert soon went on to complete his 50 in just 30 balls. Though Munro was dismissed, the damage didn't stop even then as Kane Williamson held the strike from one end and Seifert continued the smashing from the other end for a few overs.
Howbeit, Khaleel Ahmed ended Tim Seifert's swashbuckling hurricane innings in the 13th over, veterans Williamson and Taylor then took the charge. But once the Kiwi captain was dismissed, wickets kept falling at regular intervals.
Although, this didn't affect the run rate of the Kiwi innings as every other batsman continued to play at high tempo and eventually took the team's total to a mouth-watering 219-run mark.
Chasing a mammoth target, India too had a good start in terms of runs as they were 53/2 by the end of the first powerplay. India had lost both its openers early but Vijay Shankar held the strike and kept whacking the bowlers from one end.
However, once Shankar was dismissed, the Men in Blue suffered a horrendous collapse as no Indian batsman could farm the strike. MS Dhoni, albeit, tried to build a partnership with Krunal Pandya in the end but it was too late as the difference between the required amount of runs and the number of balls left became too huge. India eventually lost the match by a huge margin of 80 runs.
Here is how the world reacted to India's record loss in the first T20I:
Kane Williamson: Fantastic performance all around, everyone rose and it was one of those complete performances that you search for. But it has finished now, we move on in a day's time and we have another game. The top-order were superb and we built partnerships that helped us. Seifert, Munro were outstanding. We know it will be different in a couple of days time and we need to learn from our bits and pieces and move on. Some really good experiences for the boys, some of the short contributions are of great importance. Daryll bowled really well and played a good cameo down the order. We had the runs on the board, but the bowling and fielding too were of high standard. A complete performance that doesn't happen every day and hope we can keep the momentum through the series having set the tone.
Rohit Sharma: It was a tough game. We were outplayed in all three departments. We didn't start well and we knew that 200 wasn't going to be an easy chase although the grounds are small here. But we kept losing wickets and that threw us off. We have chased such targets in the past and that is why we played with eight batsmen, but we didn't have small partnerships and that made it tough while chasing such a big target. But New Zealand though played well, they had partnerships that allowed them to get such a big score. We need to go to Auckland, assess the conditions and take it forward. As a team, we have been good at chasing down targets which is why we play with eight batsmen.
Tim Seifert, Man of the Match: It was a great way to start the series and the boys are really happy. It feels great to go up the order, look at the first two overs and then go from there and put pressure on the bowlers. I have been selected for a reason and it feels nice to have backed my ability.
RP Singh
Nikhil
Mohandas Menon
Chetan Naurla
Umang Pabari
Aakash Chopra
Gaurav Kalra
Harsha Bhogle
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