India lost the fourth T20I of the ongoing five-match series against New Zealand in Visakhapatnam by 50 runs after the Suryakumar Yadav-led side failed to chase a target of 216 runs.
Vizag T20I: The Chase
India got off to the worst possible start while chasing a big score as the home team lost in-form Abhishek Sharma on the first ball, which was followed by captain Suryakumar Yadav, who was looking good, having hit a couple of boundaries.
Vizag T20I: The Rebuild
Sanju Samson, who was in desperate need of runs, got off to a start but was dismissed by opposition captain Mitchell Santner for the third time in three innings and was followed by Rinku Sing who scored 39 runs off 30 balls.
Vizag T20I: The Counterattack
India was in desperate need of a partnership after losing half the side with just 82 runs on the board, and that’s when Shiva Dube took charge.
Dube started his innings with a six and kept on rotating the strike before taking on Ish Sodhi for 29 runs in an over, getting the chase back on track in the process. The left-hander survived a shout for LBW, which was given out by the umpire, but was overturned courtesy of DRS, helping Dube score the third fastest fifty by an Indian batter in T20I cricket.
Vizag T20I: The Dismissal
Dube would consider himself unlucky as he was run out at the non-striker end courtesy of a full begend shot from the bat of Harshit Rana, which hit the stumps after rushing Matt Henry’s finger, thereby ending Dube’s rearguard action and India’s hopes of a win.
Vizag T20I: The Combination
India played with five specialist bowlers in this particular match, an approach that isn’t common with the current Indian setup. When Suryakumar was questioned about the same, he said, “I feel we purposely played six batters today. We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves. Like for example, if we’re chasing 200 or 180, and we wanted to see if we were two down or three down, how does it look? But then it’s fine at the end of the day. And we wanted to play all the players who are part of the World Cup squad. Otherwise, we would have played other ones.”
Also Read: Fourth T20I: Morkel Clarifies India’s Plans Before the World Cup
Vizag T20I: The Decision
The Indian captain, to the surprise of many experts and fans, chose to bowl first after winning the toss in Visakhapatnam. When asked about the rationale behind it in the post-match press cobfrence Suryakumar said that he wanted the batters to take responsibility in different situation.
Vizag T20I: Captain’s Corner
In the words of Sryakumar, “We’ve been batting really well when we’ve batted first. So I wanted the guys to take that responsibility if we’re chasing 180 or 200, and two wickets or three wickets are down and see how we bat. So it’s a good challenge. Hopefully, if we get an opportunity again, we might chase again. But at the end of the day, good learning.”
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Vizag T20I: The Assessment
Talking about the turning point of the game, Suryakumar was of the opinion that the lack of partnerships cost them the game. According to Surya, “With the heavy dew, I think one or two partnerships here and there, like the way Dube batted, one batter with him would have made a lot of difference at the end of the game. I think 50 runs, we lost by 50 runs. But it’s okay. As I said, one or two partnerships like this in a run-chase like this might make a difference.”