New Zealand, who opted to bat first after winning the toss, had come with a positive intent, and attacked Ashwin and upset the off-spinner’s rhythm from the first ball.
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“I thought we restricted them to a good total (but) the batting let us down, the shot selection kept putting pressure on the batsmen coming in and there was no partnership in the middle”, said Dhoni. “Hopefully the upcoming matches will bring the best out of us”, Dhoni said. India were outplayed at their own game by New Zealand’s unheralded spinners.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup T20 2016 is being held in India and until now the qualifying matches for the last 10 were held.
The first match between India and Pakistan was played during the first World T20 tournament in Durban in 2007.
Title favourites India capitulated to a shocking 47-run defeat against a spirited New Zealand in a low-scoring game to launch their ICC World Twenty20 campaign in the most ignominious manner.
New Zealand’s decision to omit their premier fast bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult looked a bit silly but even before the match had ended everybody understood the significance of captain Kane Williamson’s decision to field two unknown spinners in their stead. Raina and Jadeja also comes to one after one. The trio gave away just 44 runs in 11 overs among them and took nine Indian wickets.
Key to New Zealand’s dominant performance were spinners Santner (4-11), Ish Sodhi (3-18) and Nathan McCullum (2-15) – Adam Milne (1-8) collecting the only wicket to fall to pace.
“It was a tough surface”, said victorious New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.
The Kiwis, who have never lost to India in the shortest version of the game, thus maintained their ideal record. “In Indian conditions, we can expect spin to play a big part, and it’s important that we adjust our game accordingly”. Most 30 runs comes from Skipper Dhoni, 23 from Virat Kohli was the second highest.
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Anderson, whose 42-ball stay included just three boundaries, then stuck around with Ross Taylor and Mitchell Santner to counter the Indian bowlers on what seemed like a slow track.
