'No one thought...': Hardik Pandya surprised after defeat against New Zealand in first T20I

Indian T20I team captain Hardik Pandya was a surprised man after his team lost thefirst T20I match against New Zealand. Pandya said the amount of spin the NZ bowlers extracted in the second innings, made life toughfor the Indian batters.

"No one even thought the wicket would play like that, New Zealand clearly played better cricket and they are the deserved winners. The ball was turning more with the new ball than the old one, caught by surprise by the bounce and turn."

Still in the nascent stages of his international captaincy career, Pandya, however, was blunt in his assessment of the bowling performance. He said the bowlers conceded a little too many at the fag end of the New Zealand innings.

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"On hindsight, I don't think this wicket was 177, we were poor with the ball and we ended up giving 25 runs more than the par," said Pandya at the post-match ceremony.

"We're a young group, we make mistakes but we need to learn from it, that's how we're looking at it as well."

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

India won the toss and decided to field first thinking the dew would come in the second half of the match and make the batting easier. However, the opposite transpired.

The dew wasn't as heavy and New Zealand started with Micahel Bracewell. The off-spinner got the ball to turn and bounce as opener Ishan Kishan was outfoxed by a pearler that kissed the top of off.

Bracewell seemed amazed like Pandya and said, "We were surprised with the turn, in the first innings too and we were fortunate to bowling second and the turn was still there."

Such was the control of spinners that opposition captain Mitchell Santner managed to bowl a maiden over to Suryakumar Yadav, of all batters.

"It was a bit of a shock for everyone involved as to how much it spun in the second innings. It was a great game, pretty tight in the end. And it was nice to see the ball spin a bit more," said Santner.

Read more: 'He needs to go back...': Hardik Pandya has advice for this bowler after loss against Sri Lanka

India and New Zealand will square off again in the second T20I on Saturday at theBharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium inLucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

(With inputs from agencies)

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