Jaipur, Nov 17 (Agency) In the first-ever T20I played at the Sawai Mansigh Stadium in Jaipur, India were stretched to the final over by New Zealand before they could take a 1-0 lead with a five-wicket win. Chasing 165 in the opening T20I of the three-match series, India were cruising until the 17th over, needing 23 off 24 balls. But New Zealand’s pacers came back strongly, making the most of their collective experience to leave India requiring 10 from the final over. Eventually, India just about managed to cross the line with two balls to spare.
On the back of Martin Guptill’s first half-century against India in T20Is. Guptill let loose after Chapman departed as New Zealand went past 150 in the 18th over. After a slow start, Guptill finished with a 42-ball 70 with four sixes and three fours, but New Zealand’s middle order wobble had them finish 15-20 runs short with only 12 runs coming in the last two overs.
Brief scores: New Zealand164/6 in 20 overs (Martin Guptill 70, Mark Chapman 63; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-24, R Ashwin 2-23) lost to India166/5 in 19.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 48, Suryakumar Yadav 62; Trent Boult 2-31) by five wickets.