Dubai: India could manage their second lowest total in T20 World Cup events after they set a paltry 110 for 7 in their do-or-die match against New Zealand in a Super 12 Round match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup here on Sunday.
Captain Virat Kohli sprung a surprise on New Zealand by sending Ishan Kishan as opener in order to blunt Trent Boult's threat with the new ball. But, the left-arm pacer sent thunderbolts even at the left-right combination and terrorised the Indian openers.
India's insane batting continued with experienced batsmen like KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who played rash strokes in powerplay when it was not required as the run rate was run-a-ball, which is good to start with.
After getting three wickets under 8 overs, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson found a window to slip overs out of medium pacer Adam Milne and leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, when the batsmen weren't in the attacking mode.
For the first time in long years, there were no boundaries scored from 6th to 15th over, which underlined the dominance of New Zealand bowlers led by Trent Boult and Sodhi who picked five wickets between them.
Boult picked 3 wickets for 20 and Sodhi 2 for 17. Southee and Milne scalped one wicket each.
Sent into bat, India lost a new pair of openers, Rahul and Ishan Kishan in PowerPlay.
Boult struck early by dismissing Kishan (4) and almost had Rohit Sharma, who came at Number three, for a golden duck. Milne dropped a sitter to give Rohit an early life off the first ball he faced.
But, the dropped chance did not cost New Zealand much as Sodhi and pacer Southee knocked off KL Rahul (18) and Rohit (14), leaving India tottering at 40 for 3 in 7.4 overs.
Things went from bad to worse for India as the rescue-man Kohli had hammered 51 in the last match against Pakistan, but today he did not contribute much.
Sodhi sent the Indian captain back in the hut after he made 9. He lost his wicket trying to slog-sweep the leg spinner, but the ball ballooned up for Boult to take an easy catch at the deep, leaving India tottering at 48 for 4 in 10.1 overs.
Rishabh Pant (12), Hardik Pandya (23) and Shardul Thakur (0), were sent back by Milne and Boult, when the total was a mere 94 for 7 in 18.4 overs.
Ravindra Jadeja (26 no) tried to raise the tempo for India, but did not get any support from other batsmen, except Pandya towards the end. (UNI)
