The second T20I between India and New Zealand turned out to be a very low-scoring thriller. New Zealand were restricted to just 99/8 in her 20 overs, with India only able to cross the line with her second ball from the end of their own innings.
It was Yuzvendra Chahal who began to resist the New Zealand batting line-up. He surprised Allen with a dangerous fin on his third ball of the game. Chahal threw another over and overall he allowed 4 runs on 12 balls. Surprisingly, however, captain Hardik Pandya did not give him another over after that. Former Indian hitter Gautam Gambhir wasn’t too happy with the move.
“Big surprise. Even with a wicket like this, you can’t answer that question. Chahal is the number one spinner in the T20 format. It doesn’t make sense to just ask him to bowl two overs to take the all-important wicket from Finn Allen and not use the full quota of overs,” Gambhir told Star Sports after the match.
Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Deepak Hooda were the only bowlers to pitch all of their allotted overs while Washington Sundar had his one left. Pandya was the only pacemaker to bowl until the last two overs, but all-rounder Arshdeep Singh threw the ball towards the end of the second over and challenged Shivam Mavi to bowl the final over.
Gambhir said India could have beaten New Zealand by a margin of 80-85 had he given bowling one more point after Chahal’s death. “Yes, you want to give young people like Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi another chance. But then we could have rolled Chahal last or earlier. So I feel like he missed a trick. He may have bowled New Zealand for 80 or 85, but you don’t want to disappoint them on a pitch like that. It’s a big surprise to ask Hooda to throw four overs instead of Chahal,” Gambhir said.