IND vs NZ 2nd T20I: Harshal Patel shines on debut as India overcome Martin Guptill blitz to restrict visitors to 153

Debutant Harshal Patel impressed one and all as his guile and slower ones were on show in the second T20I between India and New Zealand in Ranchi. Bowling first India recovered after Martin Guptill got his team off to a flier in the powerplay, to restrict the visitors to 153/8, going for just 28 runs in the final five overs.

Martin Guptill had said before the match that in the first game in Jaipur, they fell a few runs short of the score which they wanted to get, so he ensured the visitors were ahead of the game as he went after Indian bowling from ball one. 

The first ball, an outside edge ran towards the boundary, on the second, he stood tall and dispatched it over point, making his intentions clear. Whether the ball was in his arc or not, he just wanted to take on. KL Rahul dropped him a couple of balls later after a fantastic effort, but he kept swinging his willow in the direction of the ball moving away from him.

He hit a couple of more sixes as he had done his job scoring 31 runs off 14 balls before Deepak Chahar got his revenge.

Daryl Mitchell and Mark Chapman then kept the scorecard ticking before both got out in quick succession. Glenn Phillips and Tim Seifert after which stitched another partnership of 35-odd but losing two wickets together again hurt them as their innings went nowhere in the last five overs.

New Zealand could score only 28 runs in the last five overs as they couldn't get any momentum losing a flurry of wickets at the death. Debutant Harshal Patel finished with 2/25 in his four overs as all other four bowlers finished with one wicket each.

INNINGS BREAK!

Fine performance with the ball from #TeamIndia!

 wickets on debut for @HarshalPatel23
 wicket each for @ashwinravi99, @akshar2026, @BhuviOfficial & @deepak_chahar9 #INDvNZ @Paytm

Scorecard https://t.co/9m3WflcL1Y pic.twitter.com/iz8ogYly5i

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 19, 2021