Christchurch: India captain Shreyas Iyer hailed his opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson for setting up the record chase of 226 against New Zealand in the T20I series opener and lauded Naman Dhir’s composure in applying finishing touches.
In front of a sell-out crowd at the Hagley Oval, India pulled off their highest successful T20I chase to beat New Zealand by four wickets and take a 1-0 lead in the series. India were given a rollicking start by a 93-run opening stand between Samson (67 off 33 balls) and Abhishek (29 off 12 balls). After a mid-innings wobble, Dhir finished unbeaten on 42 off 15 balls and sealed the win with a six off the penultimate ball of the chase.
“They (Abhishek and Sanju) are absolutely experienced enough. You don’t have to tell them how to go about their business. They know exactly what they’re doing, and once they get going, it’s just about the momentum they carry forward, and today was just an example of that.
“So obviously it doesn’t happen every time, but once they click, you see that they set a game for us, and the rest of us, we just come and steady the ship and see to it that we finish off the game,” Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
He was also full of praise for Dhir, whose stocks are rising fast in international cricket, and said his ability to chip in with some off-spin bowling added to his value at number seven.
“Absolutely. He gives us a lot of options, especially for lefty batsmen, or even the right-handers batting, especially on this ground, coming in and bowling those two-three crucial overs actually can change the momentum. And I personally feel that the calm and composed nature that he showed today was simply magnificent to see him bat.”
The win came barely days after India wrapped up their home series against the West Indies, and Iyer felt the team could now move on from the long journey. “Fantastic. Probably we’ve got to forget about the jet lag now,” he said.
The Indian bowlers had a tough outing as New Zealand piled up 225/4, with none of them conceding less than 10 runs an over. Iyer admitted they had pitched it up too often early on before the dew made life harder for bowlers.
“So when we started bowling, I thought it was playing a bit slow. The ball was holding a bit, and we bowled a little ahead compared to the hard lengths we should have been hitting. But as soon as the game progressed, we saw the dew coming in, and the wicket was skidding flatter as the ball was getting through and coming onto the bat pretty well.
“That’s how they got the momentum, and they reached 220. Kudos to them for the efforts, but obviously we needed that kind of start, especially when you’re chasing 220, getting to 80-85 in six overs, that’s a tremendous start,” concluded Iyer.
(IANS)
