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ICC World T20 off to a flyer

 
Arguably the second biggest International Cricket Council (ICC) tournament after the 50-over cricket world cup, the waiting was finally over today as the ICC World T20 kicked off with a bang as hosts India were outplayed by New Zealand in their backyard in the first official encounter of the tournament played at Nagpur.

India were left stunned as they went down to a crushing 47-run defeat to New Zealand. With finishers like MS  Dhoni and Virat Kohli at their disposal the hosts were expected to cruise in chasing the 126 target set by New Zealand.

Despite playing in conditions that favours them, the host struggled to find consistence with the ball and bat. New Zealand's decision of leaving front line bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee proved to paid dividents in triggering the hosts.

With most people convinced that the 126-runs target set by New Zealand was little, especially playing against title favourites.

Leading New Zealand for the first time in a major ICC tournament after the retirement of former skipper Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson's decision of batting first looked like it would backfire.

New Zealand openers were both dismissed on single figures with Martin Guptil scoring six runs. Guptil smashed a six in Ravichandran Ashwin's first delivery of the first over, on the next ball he was dismissed by Ashwin with an LBW, while captain Kane Williamson made eight runs before he was stumped by MS Dhoni off the bowling of Suresh Raina.

Corey Anderson was the highest run scorer for New Zealand with 34 runs of 42 balls.

The host didn't either have the best of starts in their run-chase as openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were dismissed five and one respectively.

The wickets continued to tumble as the host were dismissed for 79 all out, their second lowest total in Twenty20 international. The lose also stretched their record of failing to beat New Zealand in a 20-over format international match.

New Zealand spin trio of Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi claimed nine wickets, with Santner being named man of the match after claiming four wicket. The 23 year-old finished with match figures of 4-11.

New Zealand skipper  Kane Williamson praised the team for their fight back after posting a low total in what he called a "tough surface".

"Whatever score we got I knew it would be difficult to chase on this surface. That was a good hit out first up by the boys and we knew if we bowled well we would do well," Williamson said.

While India Skipper MS Dhoni highlighted the bowling as the aspect that dragged them down.

"We had a few soft dismissal with poor shots.There were no partnerships in the middle and then we were down in the run rate. They bowled well, but we lacked adaptability. 126 was a decent score to chase but our batters let us down," Dhoni said.









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