India vs New Zealand, 28th Match, Group 2 (N), Dubai (DSC), Oct 31 2021
Match Result: New Zealand won by 8 wickets (with 33 balls remaining)
Player of the Match: Ish Sodhi
Match Report: “The nice guys” who always “punch above their weight”. “Nice guys don’t finish first”. New Zealand’s cricket team are the flag-bearers of demolishing nonsense beliefs, and the epitome of balance – between being goodnatured, and being fiercely competitive. They’re 3-0 up against India in T20 World Cups.
This is the second time they’ve come out to trounce India in an ICC event this year. As for India, they need a miracle and a half to recover from a plane crash of a start to this World Cup. India need cricket to live upto its reputation of a great leveller, and provide them with adequate luck and merit to turn this around in the next three.
Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain: “There’s always planning going into game, but this was a great performance against a side that puts up a fight. The surface wasn’t easy to find rhythm on, and the way the openers came out really set things up for the chase. It’s just about adapting to the conditions as well as we could.
The way the spinners kept applying pressure was commendable and it was a complete performance. We play against strong teams all the time, and there are match-winners in every side, and we commit to our brand of cricket and today was a good example of that.
Ish is an outstanding white-ball bowler, and he’s very experienced in playing T20 cricket, having played in different leagues all over the world, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the games in the league stages.”
Ish Sodhi | Player of the Match: “I am usually big on pre-match prep, with this bubble life we haven’t been able to see the ground until the day we come to the ground. The wicket here was one we had to adapt to pretty quickly. It was very different to what we played in Sharjah. The boundary sizes were very different.
A big part of our game is using the spin bowlers in the middle. It was set up by the powerplay bowlers. Tim Southee getting that wicket late in the powerplay was massive for us and allowed us to do our job through the middle.
We had a tough loss against Pakistan, it was hard not to think this is a really big game. Coming into the game we wanted to play as good a game we possibly could. To play the way we did tonight is one to definitely celebrate.”
Virat Kohli | India captain: “To be brutal upfront, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat/ball. We obviously didn’t have much to play with the ball. We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and NZ had better intensity, body language.
Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It’s most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not. When you play for India, there are loads of expectations. We are watched, people come to the stadium and everyone who plays for India needs to embrace that and cope with it.
We haven’t done that in these two games, and that’s why we haven’t won. We have to be optimistic and positive and take calculated risks.
We have to disconnect from the pressure and continue with our process, and play a positive brand of cricket. There’s a lot of cricket to play in the tournament.“
Video of Best Shots and Best Boundaries of Previous Two Matches : T20 WC 2021@t20worldcup https://t.co/SMZEmsE2V4
— avishkar govardhane (@avishkargovardh) October 31, 2021
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.