Cricket News

Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Santner ‘shocked’ at how Ranchi pitch played out in first India-New Zealand T20I

New Zealand beat India by 21 runs on the back of Daryl Mitchell’s amazing unbeaten innings of 59 off 30 balls with three fours and five sixes. At the 19th over, New Zealand were 149-6 and India needed to wrap up the innings with a good 20th over. But Arshdeep Singh bowled a 27 run over where the balance tilted in favour of Zealand.

After the match finished, both captains expressed surprise and were in reasonable awe as to how the pitch at the JSCA stadium in Ranchi played out. The pitch gripped and turned and kept the spinners in the game, dew did not make an impact until the second innings. The target for India was 177 but the Men in Blue ended up on 155-9 giving the Kiwis the first win of the series.

We were in the game till Surya and I were batting -Hardik Pandya

“I don’t think no one even thought that this wicket would play like that,” Hardik Pandya told the host broadcaster Star Sports at the post-match presentation. “Both teams kind of got surprised, but think they played better cricket on this [pitch], and that’s the reason the result ended like that. The grass which was cut quite finely offered assistance to the slower bowlers in the game.

“Actually, the ball was turning more with the new ball than the old one. And the way it spun and the way it was getting [that] bounce, I think it kind of caught us by surprise, but I still think we kind of pulled it back. We were still in the game till Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] and myself were batting and obviously the way Washy [Washington Sundar] finished. As I said, it was a surprise wicket, but they just played little better cricket than us.” Pandya added.

“I think it was a shock for everyone involved – how much it kind of spun in the second innings,” Santner said. “But yeah, it was a great game, and it was pretty tight in the end. You saw a lot runs in the ODI series, so it’s nice to see the ball spin a bit more [in the T20Is].” Mitchell Santner said when he was asked questions about the pitch. Santner had an impact in the second innings where he bowled a fantastic spell and picked up 2-11 in his four overs.