VISAKHAPATNAM: For a while, there was a deathly silence at the ACA-VDCA Stadium on Wednesday. It was a full house with 22,333 turning up to cheer for India, but there was not much to cheer. Chasing the 216-run target set by New Zealand, the hosts had lost their top three for only 55 runs in 6.4 overs.
Abhishek Sharma was caught at deep point on the very first ball when he charged at Matt Henry, trying to slash him. It is one of the very few areas where Abhishek is prone to get out early, and New Zealand did not waste any time getting the desired result. Suryakumar Yadav was almost caught on the last ball of the same over, but got lucky. That luck, however, did not last long. All Surya could manage was two fours before he offered a return catch to Jacob Duffy, but this time the ball actually carried.
India were 9/2 after two overs, with a silence engulfing the stadium. They knew they were a batter short. It was a choice they made consciously as they replaced the injured Ishan Kishan with Arshdeep Singh. At the toss, the Indian captain said that the batters would just have to take some extra responsibility.
But the skipper himself was back in the pavilion after 12 balls. Enter Rinku Singh. Rinku joined Samson — who was already under pressure to perform — in the middle and immediately took the pressure off the opener. The left-hander sent Zak Foulkes for consecutive sixes, and Samson joined the party. Together, they took India to 53/2 by the end of the powerplay.
And when they were in the middle, it seemed like the crowd found a voice. However, once the opener fell, silence took over. And it continued even as Ish Sodhi and Mitch Santner piled pressure on Rinku and Hardik Pandya. Hardik, arguably the cleanest spin hitter in the team, tried to put some pressure back but was not able to connect and eventually fell.
The sombre mood continued, barring the occasional cheer when Rinku or Shivam Dube found a boundary. And when Rinku was trapped on the pads at the halfway mark, it seemed like the game was over. Some fans on the upper-tier stands started leaving their seats in a bid to beat the jam after the match.
129 runs needed from 54 balls, with Shivam Dube the last recognised batter, or rather a batting all-rounder. With him at the other end was Harshit Rana. Dube decided it was his turn to take some responsibility. He smashed three sixes and two fours of Ish Sodhi — a positive match-up for the left-hander — in a single over. Every time he launched the leggie into oblivion, it seemed like the ball was travelling out of the ground before coming down into the stands.
Within a span of six balls, he breathed some life into the contest. And the fans found their voice too. For the time being, at least. So much so that a steady chant of ‘Dube, Dube, Dube’ started to emerge between balls. And the Mumbaikar fed off it, hitting two more sixes off Duffy before sending Henry into the stands. His fifty came off just 15 balls as Dube and India inched closer. There was a close run-out call for Rana, an LBW overturned for Dube; it seemed like it was his day after all. Until it wasn’t. Rana hit Henry back, and the ball brushed his fingers before catching Dube (65 off 23 balls) out of the crease at the non-striker’s end. An unfortunate end to a valiant effort.
From thereon, it was only a matter of time before New Zealand got their first win of the T20I series. By the time they did, half the fans had left and India were left with just one game to experiment with before the T20 World Cup. Wednesday was a chance for several Indian batters to step up, use the game time and deliver for India. However, despite the heavy dew, no one did except for perhaps Dube. And that should send some warning signs before the final T20I in Thiruvananthapuram.