Suryakumar, Ishan punish New Zealand as dominant India double series lead
Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan roughed up the New Zealand bowlers in second T20I as India secured a 2-0 lead in the series.
New Delhi: Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan made a mockery of the New Zealand bowlers as India doubled the series lead with an emphatic victory in second T20I in Raipur. After the hosts were given a competitive score of 209 runs to chase on Friday, both the out of form batters returned to their form and blasted the Kiwis completing the target in just 15.2 overs with 7 wickets to spare.
In a tough chase, India lost the opening pair of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma early in the innings as the Kiwis were able to given them big jolts at the start. Post the dismissals as things looked a bit tough for the hosts, Ishan and Suryakumar started a counter-attack stitching a 122-run stand to bail out India from the tough situation and take a 2-0 lead in the 5-match series.
Highest targets successfully chased down by India (T20I)
209 Ind vs NZ Raipur 2026 *
209 vs Aus Vizag 2023
208 vs WI Hyderabad 2019
207 vs SL Mohali 2009
204 vs NZ Auckland 2020
202 vs AUS Rajkot 2013
Ishan slams record fifty
It was Ishan's knock first which set the Raipur stadium on fire as the left-hander slammed the fastest fifty by an Indian batter against New Zealand in T20Is in just 21 balls breaking Abhishek's record of the quickest fifty in 22 balls which he had achieved in the series opener. The lethal batter was finally dismissed for 76 off 32 balls which included 11 boundaries and 4 sixes.
Skipper Surya's lethal knock
After his dismissal, Suryakumar took off from where Ishan had left as the India skipper played an unbeaten innings of 82 in just 37 balls laden with 9 fours and 4 sixes to help the side reach home comfortably. Shivam Dube also contributed in the exciting chase scoring 36 off just 18 balls to help in the cause. For the Kiwis, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy and Ish Sodhi claimed a wicket each but failed to stop the fiery Indian batters.
Earlier, a 27-ball 47-run unbeaten knock from Mitchell Santner made the difference in the first innings score of New Zealand as the visitors put up 208 for 6 in the stipulated 20 overs. Indian bowlers did pretty well by restricting the Kiwi batters apart from Rachin Ravindra, who scored 44 runs off 26 balls.
Rest of the batters including Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell could only score 19 and 18 runs with Tim Seifert adding 24 runs to the overall score. But Santner proved to be the game-changer for the Kiwis helping them put up a big total on the board with Zakary Foulkes also adding 15 quick runs off just 8 balls.
For India, Arshdeep Singh proved to be the most expensive bowler, giving away 53 runs and not taking any wicket. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets while Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana, Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakaravarthy all claimed a wicket each to contribute.