This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
Canada: 
Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
ICC Men's T20 World Cup, Dubai
India 110-7 (20 overs): Jadeja 26* (19); Boult 3-20, Sodhi 2-17
New Zealand 111-2 (14.3 overs): Mitchell 49 (35), Williamson 33* (31); Bumrah 2-19
New Zealand won by eight wickets
India's hopes at the Men's T20 World Cup are hanging by a thread after New Zealand inflicted a second successive miserable defeat on the pre-tournament favourites.
After a 10-wicket thrashing against rivals Pakistan in their opening game, Virat Kohli's side were again woefully abject with the bat to suffer an eight-wicket defeat, with 33 balls to spare, in Dubai.
Put into bat, they lacked intent and crawled to 110-7, only hitting eight fours and two sixes to all but silence an Indian-dominated crowd.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja top-scored with an unbeaten 26 from 19 balls, while left-armer Trent Boult took 3-20 and spinner Ish Sodhi 2-17 for New Zealand.
Jasprit Bumrah removed Martin Guptill for 20 but Daryl Mitchell, who made 49 off 35 balls, shared 72 with Kane Williamson to drag the Black Caps within touching distance of victory before he holed out to long-on.
Williamson finished 33 not out as New Zealand picked up their first win and severely dented the hopes of star-studded India.
Pakistan lead Group 2 with three wins from three games, while Afghanistan have four points and New Zealand and Namibia both have two points. India and Scotland are pointless.
India will likely need to win all three of their remaining matches, against Afghanistan on Wednesday, Scotland on Friday and Namibia on November 8 – and turn around a huge net run-rate swing alongside other results going their way – to stand any chance of Winning.
India have an embarrassment of riches and power when it comes to batting and that is why they were labelled as favourites pre-tournament by England captain Eoin Morgan.
Yet they posted a below-par score against Pakistan and this was another shockingly subdued effort, despite a slow and tricky pitch.
In stark contrast to England's blistering win over Australia on Saturday, India were happy to block at the start before three really tame dismissals left them 40-3 halfway through the eighth over.
Ishan Kishan was caught on the square-leg boundary, KL Rahul was caught pulling and Rohit Sharma, who was demoted from opener for just the third time in 77 Twenty20 internationals, flat-batted to long-on for 14.
It left Kohli and Rishabh Pant to rebuild, but they were cautious too and happy to just rotate the strike. It resulted in Kohli holing out to long-on off Sodhi for just nine.
Pant and Hardik Pandya curbed their naturally aggressive instinct and India's lack of intent and strategy perplexed as 71 balls passed without a boundary through the middle overs.
It was only Jadeja, who managed to hit two fours and one six, who showed any positivity and desire to haul India to a competitive total.
Former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala said: "India have always been like that and take the route of caution at the start.
"They need to reassess that approach. It has worked for them in the past, but I'm not sure it is anymore. They need to take the England route and go really big and hard in the first six overs."
Be the first to comment