Mitchell Santner stars with ball as New Zealand draws first blood in T20Is, wins Ranchi match by 21runs

New Zealand drew first blood against India in the three-match T20I series with a 21-run win in Ranchi on Friday. A new-looking Kiwi team stunned the star-studded hosts ending their losing run on the India tour. In the game of Mitchells for New Zealand, they found their match winners in Daryl and Santner, who contributed with bat and ball, respectively. While it was Daryl Mitchell’s quickfire fifty in the end that laid a strong foundation, Santner completed the remainder of proceedings with his exceptional spell of two for 11 in four overs.

Electing to bowl first after winning the toss at the JSCA international stadium, India got off to a shaky start – leaking runs in the first couple of overs. Quick wickets to India’s lone performer for today, Washington Sundar pulled the game back for them, but not for long. Brimming with confidence following his last innings’ hundred in Indore, opener Devon Conway scored a fifty in Ranchi too.

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However, it was late blitz from their middle-order batter Daryl Mitchell, whose 30-ball 59 helped the Kiwis put up a fighting total on the board.

For India, Sundar returned with figures of two for 22 in four overs, whereas, seamer Arshdeep Singh went expensive, going for 51 in four overs.

The chase, however, didn’t begin in the best of manners for India as they lost both openers inside first three overs. Rahul Tripathi followed them on zero too as Suryakumar and Hardik Pandya then set the base with oddboundaries. While Hardik was playing the cautiousgame, SKY didn’t hold himself and hammered bowlers to all parts, hitting 47 off 34.

Wickets to Michael Bracewell and Santner in the middle orders meant only Washington Sundar was left to bail India out of trouble. Already high on confidence, the left-handed Sundar did smoksome beautiful shots at the fag end and kept India in the game. His heroic efforts couldn’t continue for long as he lost his wicket in the last over fora well-made 50 off 28 balls.

Courtesy an all-round performance from New Zealand, they won the first T20I by 21 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.