crickets

Brendon McCullum’s fourth consecutive half century in Twenty20 internationals, and useful contributions from Jesse Ryder at the top of the innings and Ross Taylor in the middle order helped New Zealand beat India by five wickets in the second Twenty20 International played at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Friday and take the two-match series 2-0.

Chasing a target of 150 runs, New Zealand scored the winning run off the last ball of their innings. In pursuit of the total, New Zealand openers Jesse Ryder and McCullum gave a good start to their side.

They scored 53 runs in 4.4 runs with Ryder making 26 runs with help of three 4s and two 6s before a Zaheer-delivery came in enough to take a faint edge of his bat and clip the bails in a swift-soft manner.

After Guptill’s dismissal, Ross Taylor joined McCullum and the duo added 56 runs for the third wicket. Taylor scored 27 runs before a beautiful yorker from Irfan Pathan in the 18th over castled him.

Off the very next delivery, Irfan sent burly Kiwi all-rounder Jacob Oram back for a zilch. These two wickets brought India back in the game. Soon Yuvraj Singh dismissed Neil Broom for 5 runs.

Irfan bowled the last over, with the hosts still needing 12 runs to win. Three singles off the first three balls, and India had turned favourites to win the match. However, McCullum latched on to a low full toss dished out by Pathan and hit him for a boundary over midwicket, and then followed that up with a boundary straight down the ground. Needing one to win the match off the last ball, McCullum chipped down the ground and tried to swat Pathan through the on-side, but only managed a top edge which just eluded a diving Rohit Sharma at mid off. The single was taken, and New Zealand managed to emerge victors off the last ball of the match.

McCullum was unbeaten on 69 (55 balls), while his brother Nathan McCullum remained unbeaten on 1.

For India, Harbhajan and Jadeja were outstanding, only conceding 36 runs from eight overs.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS