T20 World Cup: Second defeat deals huge blow to India’s hope of semifinal spot

Dubai, October 31

Exactly a week after the Indian cricket team was routed by Pakistan in their first match of the T20 World Cup, New Zealand crushed them by eight wickets here tonight. With this, India’s hopes of qualifying for the semifinal stage hang by a slender thread.

Set a modest 111 to win, New Zealand were never in trouble as they romped to the target for the loss of only two wickets, with 33 balls left.

Needing to score at only 5.5 runs an over, New Zealand were never under pressure, and a second-wicket partnership of 72 off nine overs between Daryl Mitchell (49 off 35 balls) and Kane Williamson (33 not out off 31 balls) took them to the brink of victory. Jasprit Bumrah took 2/19 off four overs, but overall India’s bowling attack lacked the sting to trouble the batsmen, who were under no pressure to score at a fast clip.

Weeping willows

Earlier, India’s acclaimed batting line-up put up another woeful performance to crawl to a paltry 110 for seven.

New Zealand’s bowling attack embarrassed Virat Kohli’s men, who didn’t show the stomach for a fight after their skipper lost an important toss.

It seemed the Indian batters were giving catching practice to the New Zealand fielders as most of the Indians were out in the deep trying to force the pace, and failing miserably. There were 54 dot balls in the innings, which meant that India didn’t score any runs in nine of their 20 overs.

There were no demons in the wicket but India’s shoddy show with the bat is a result of poor team selection and lack of flexibility in team plans.

Quite bizarre. I don’t think we were brave enough with bat or ball. Didn’t have much to defend but we weren’t brave when we walked out to field Virat Kohli, India Captain

A fantastic all-round performance from us against a formidable India side. We were able to build pressure throughout and the way the openers came out really set the platform Kane Williamson, New Zealand Captain

And on top of that, everything that could go wrong did go wrong today as well, leaving the team stranded. For example, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both lost form at the same time. The middle-order, which was a worry, remained so and Hardik Pandya as a batter completely flopped on big days. But the biggest problem was that for a country whose players are considered champion players of spin bowling, the batters looked clueless against the slow stuff.

Just like in the Pakistan game, the opposition spinners — left-arm orthodox Mitchell Santner (4-0-15-0) and leg-spinner Ish Sodhi (4-0-17-2) — put the batsmen on a tight leash, giving away only 32 runs in their eight overs.

India tweaked their batting order but it did not work as there was no firepower in the Powerplay overs and at 40/3 in eight overs, disaster was staring them in the face.

The wickets fell in a rush. Ishan Kishan tried to whip one off Trent Boult (4-0-20-3) but was caught at deep square-leg boundary by Santner. KL Rahul (18) hit a couple of boundaries but not for a moment during his 16-ball stay did he look confident enough. Tim Southee (4-0-26-1) exposed Rahul’s problems against the short ball as his pull shot was collected by Santner.

Rohit Sharma (14) first got a reprieve with a compulsive pull that was dropped by Adam Milne at backward square-leg. Then, when Milne came into the attack, he slashed one over point for a four and whipped another over square-leg for a six. When Sodhi pitched one slightly on the shorter length, he tried to pull it in front of square but was caught by a tumbling Martin Guptill, who judged it well enough to make it 40/3.

Kohli, who of late has been playing the role of an anchor, never got going and during his laboured presence at the wicket only increased the pressure on the team. Sodhi tossed one conventional leg-break outside the off-stump and the Indian captain, trying to hit against the turn, could only find Boult at the long-on boundary.

Pandya, who got 23 off 24 balls, is not a threat in his current form, while Rishabh Pant, after being kept quiet by the two Black Caps spinners, got one fast and straight from Milne, which bowled him. Once Pant was gone, the chance of a decent fighting total was also thrown out of the Dubai International Stadium, and into the Arabian Sea. — TNS, Agencies

Scoreboard

India

KL Rahul c Mitchell b Southee 18

I Kishan c Mitchell b Boult 4

R Sharma c Guptill b Sodhi 14

V Kohli c Boult b Sodhi 9

R Pant b Milne 12

H Pandya c Guptill b Boult 23

R Jadeja not out 26

S Thakur c Guptill b Boult 0

M Shami not out 0

Extras: (lb 2, w 2) 4

Total: (7 wickets, 20 overs) 110

FOW: 1-11, 2-35, 3-40, 4-48, 5-70, 6-94, 7-94

Bowling O M R W

Trent Boult 4 0 20 3

Tim Southee 4 0 26 1

Mitchell Santner 4 0 15 0

Adam Milne 4 0 30 1

Ish Sodhi 4 0 17 2

New Zealand

M Guptill c Thakur b Bumrah 20

D Mitchell c Rahul b Bumrah 49

K Williamson not out 33

D Conway not out 2

Extras: (lb 1, w 6) 7

Total: (2 wickets, 14.3 overs) 111

FOW: 1-24, 2-96

Bowling O M R W

Varun Chakravarthy 4 0 23 0

Jasprit Bumrah 4 0 19 2

Ravindra Jadeja 2 0 23 0

Mohammed Shami 1 0 11 0

Shardul Thakur 1.3 0 17 0

Hardik Pandya 2 0 17 0

Player of the Match: Ish Sodhi

Knockout punch, virtually

After two defeats, India are fifth among six teams in Group 2. Pakistan are on top with three wins and are practically certain to beat Scotland and Namibia in their next games. India’s next three games are against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia — and New Zealand too have three matches left against these very teams. Assuming India and New Zealand win their matches against these three weaker teams, India would be knocked out because of today’s loss. For India to qualify for the semifinals, they would need to win all three matches, and hope that New Zealand would be beaten in two of their three matches against Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia. Upsets are not very surprising in T20 cricket, but much needs to go right for India to make it to the semis — it seems too much to hope for.

Afghanistan too strong

Abu Dhabi: Seamers Naveen-ul-Haq and Hamid Hassan took three wickets apiece to help Afghanistan crush Namibia by 62 runs and keep alive their hopes of progressing to the semifinals. Namibia could only muster 98/9 in reply to Afghanistan’s 160/5. Former captain Asghar Afghan, retired from international cricket after today’s victory. Reuters

Today’s match

England vs Sri Lanka

Star Sports 7:30pm

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