India vs New Zealand highlights, 4th T20I: NZ beat IND by 50 runs in Visakhapatnam to make series 3-1

It was nice. I think, obviously, the way we started in the powerplay was kind of what India have been doing to us a little bit. And then to get to a decent score, but we knew that at least 200 is never safe against India. I think especially after the last game, you know, you get 150, you don’t want guys to go back into their shell. We can’t win the other way, which was nice. You know, the way they took on the bowlers in the powerplay was outstanding and set us up for a decent score. There was a little period in the middle where we lost wickets, but I guess with a start like that, and then obviously finished off by Daryl and Foulkes a little bit, which was nice. You know, we’re trying to think what we’re likely to get. I mean, like I said at the start, there’s no better prep than playing India in India for a World Cup. So we’ve got a couple of guys back for the next game, which is nice. But again, it’s about getting our plans right, getting the roles sorted for what we’ve got coming up in the Cup. It looked like it was going to be flat and not spinning. I think it was a little bit tacky at the end, and on the seam it was spinning when you bowled slow. So I guess I don’t need a second invitation to bowl slow either. I think partnerships throughout, obviously wickets at the start are crucial, and it makes our job as spinners a little bit easier in the middle.

I think obviously coming here and playing a very good side, to bounce back and continue the good stuff that we’ve been doing. It’s easy after a couple of losses like that to go searching, but I think that shows a lot about the character of this group, to keep competing. That’s what we kind of hang our hat on. I think the key is assessing conditions. Obviously, we’ve played on three really good surfaces lately, small grounds and here was no different. Very, very wet conditions as well. So I think for us, it’s actually just about keeping fighting. You’re going to have overs where you can get taken for runs, but as long as you keep believing that you can change it by taking wickets, that’s what stems the flow of runs. And that’s what we’ve been able to do. So it was really pleasing to watch the guys go about it tonight. It’s good to get some overs under the belt. It’s not nice when you’re sitting on the side, so it’s great to be back.

Harshit Rana, too, has fallen here. Mitchell Santner went back to his leg-spinner, brave captaincy from him, and Rana danced down the track to a delivery which Sodhi threw wide-outside the off-stump, and the ball went high in the air, which the point fielder took. As we update, Sodhi has picked up another wicket here, and it is Arshdeep who tried to play one on the leg-side, got the leading edge, and the ball went high in the air, and Mitchell Santner completed the catch. It does seem like New Zealand is going to win a game in this T20I series.

Shivam Dube has turned this game on its head. Mitchell Santner turned to Ish Sodhi after the wicket of Rinku Singh with a right-hander coming into the middle, and he slammed 29 runs of that over, and as we update, Dube has got to 50 from just 15 deliveries, which is the third fastest. This has been power-hitting of the highest order, no matter where the Kiwis bowled. Dube, deep in the crease, is ready for it and has been giving it his all into the mid-wicket region. Well, the momentum of this game has definitely changed since the last 10 minutes.

Mitchell Santner got rid of Hardik Pandya here. It was beautifully tossed up from the Kiwi skipper, and Hardik Pandya was in no shape or form to hit the ball in the area he intended. The ball seemed like it drifted away and took the outside edge of the bat, and Foulkes at point took a lovely catch. New Zealand are getting everything right today. Shivam Dube has walked into the middle, and he needs to build a partnership with Rinku Singh here and also needs to keep an eye on that scoring rate, which is almost 15 now at the halfway mark.

Well, one positive for New Zealand today, we might not have an early finish. India has recovered well, but they have not been as ballistic as the previous couple of games. It does have more of the orthodox T20 feel to it, and Mitchell Santner can test his captaincy skills, bowling and bowlers better. In the previous three outings things have gone at an extremly high-pace and before he or the New Zealand could react the game was over. The absence of Ishan Kishan and faliure of Abhishek Sharma seems to have worked in their favour and as per India its an opportunity for others to show their skill.

Matt Henry has picked up the first wicket for New Zealand here. The batter tried to charge down the track and slash one through the off-side, got the outside edge, and the man at third took a stunner. Well, India continues to lose wickets up front, be it Samson or Abhishek; they are a batter short today, and Suryakumar Yadav has walked into the middle. Without Kishan and his injection of momentum it will be very intresting to see how India will approach this innings from here on. Jacob Duffy has taken the new ball from the other end for Kiwis.

Well it is an innings of two halves the first half dominated by the partnership of Devon Conway and Tim Seifert and the second half and a bit India making their way back into the contest. New Zealand did manage to get 215, which is not a bad score, but the form India has been in with their batting, it remains to be seen if it will be enough today. The hurting thing for the visitors, though, today will be that they had an opportunity to get to 230 or so, but they ran out of steam in the second half. As per the Indian bowling, it is good that they keep making these comebacks into the games but they need to find formula to create breakthroughs early. Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh have been the pick of the bowlers with two wickets. We will be right back after the break do stay with us.

Skipper Mitchell Santner has gotten himself runout here. Brilliant piece of fielding from Hardik Pandya. New Zealand continue to lose wickets in the second half of this innings here. Although they intend to play like India and match them, there seems to be a difference in skill level or the players they have are more eqiupped to play the conventianl T20I format which is to give themselves a bit of time and a batter have a substantial score and the rest of the batters rotate around it. The way this innings has gone now 210 seems to a bit too far for the Kiwis.

It was an inspired bowling change from Suryakumar Yadav to bring back Arshdeep Singh for his third over. It was a slower one, which was dug into the surface, and Tim Seifert tried to hit the ball with a horizontal bat through the covers, which ended up giving a simple catch to the long-off fielder. As we update, Phillips too has perished here. It was a shorter and quicker one from Kuldeep, which Phillips managed to hit through the long-on region, which did seem like it was in the gap. Rinku Singh ran across quickly to complete a brilliant catch.

India has picked up two wickets since our last update. First it was Devon Conway who got done by Kuldeep Yadav's delivery which the wrist spinner threw wide and Kuldeep tried to play it in the extra-cover and ended up giving the catch to the fielder in the deep and then skipper turned back to Jasprit Bumrah who ended up picking the wicket of Rachin who tried to clip the ball on the leg-side but it was a slower one and the shot was nor here nor there and he ended up giving a return catch to Bumrah. Brilliant piece of bowling from Bumrah that.

This is a very good start here for New Zealand, and instead of worrying about how much is enough, they must take the innings as it comes. Seifert tried too hard, but he got the required result of New Zealand getting to a flier. Devon Conway at the other end, who has a bit of a sedate start to his innings today, can continue to bat it at his natural pace because of the start the visitors had. New Zealand batting cannot think too much about the power in the Indian batting order, instead bat sensibly and get the score which they can.

Arshdeep did get a bot swing early on in the piece and created a couple of false shots from the batter Tim Seifert; however, the ball took the leading edge and ran away for boundaries on both occassions and apart from that, Seifert himself squeezed a lovely boundary. He did have a bit of a poor game in the second T20I when the batters went after him today again, after missing the third T20I. Arshdeep has started poorly. Harshit Rana has taken the new ball from the other end. Mind you, India is playing five genuine bowlers in this game.

It’s a pleasant evening here in Visakhapatnam for the fourth T20I of the series. The pitch is right in the centre of the ground - 65 metres on either side, so no bias there. Straight down the ground is about 74 metres, so not the biggest venue. It does look like an absolute belter. It’s got a really nice straw-coloured grass covering on it. Let’s come down and have a closer look, because that straw-coloured grass, as we say back home, it’s harder than a cat’s head. And that’s exactly what this is. It is rock hard and should slide onto the bat beautifully. The outfield looks magnificent. I thought Vadodara was the best outfield I’d seen in the country, but I think this might even top that. It’s like walking on a carpet - just beautiful. We’ve seen high-scoring games here in the last couple of years, especially in the IPL. The average first-innings score is around 209, and there was even a 272 scored here in a T20 game. So whether we see something like that tonight, I’m not sure, but if you bat first, you’re going to need plenty. It’s a high-scoring surface, plenty of runs, plenty of sixes, and a little bit of dew expected in the second half. So if you win the toss, you’d want to chase.

We’re going to bowl first. It looks like a good wicket, and we’ll get a chance to practise here later. There was a lot of dew last night and today it’s a little humid as well, so we feel that in the second innings the ball will come onto the bat nicely. I think the important thing is to repeat the good habits we’ve built over the past year, not just in this series. We want to keep doing the good things we’ve been doing, learn from the last game, and go out there, enjoy ourselves, play the format the way it’s meant to be played, and entertain the people who’ve come here. It’s a beautiful ground and a lovely crowd here. Hopefully the boys are charged up and we have a good, entertaining night. Arshdeep comes in for Ishan Kishan, who picked up a niggle in the last game. Axar Patel still needs a bit more time, so hopefully we’ll see him in the next game. The batters will need to take a bit more responsibility, but at the same time not shy away from playing with fearless intent. We’ve got five good bowling options today, so we’ll see how it goes.

“As a bowler, the T20 game is always difficult. Jassi Bhai (Bumrah) bowled well, Hardik Bhai (Pandya) bowled well, Harshit (Rana) also took the wicket in the starting. If we take two or three wickets earlier, it makes difficult for the batting team,” said Bishnoi.

“The work I have done in the last one year was on my lengths because I didn’t do so well in the IPL last season. I didn’t have much control over my lengths and my lines in the last season. That’s why it was tough for me in the last season,” he told reporters. “But I tried my best to bowl in the 5-6 metres length on the stumps as it is difficult to hit from those lengths… So, I tried my best.”

“I don’t think dew will bother him (Varun) that much. Yes, it’s not the same as bowling with a dry ball, of course, but with a wet ball, I don’t see Varun struggling too much. Similarly, Axar Patel should also be fine. The one person who might find it a bit more difficult is Kuldeep Yadav with a wet ball because of his bowling style. Having said that, Kuldeep is also used to bowling in these conditions,” he added.

“His run-up always started from outside and used to come in. But he was running straight. At the point of release, his non-bowling arm had become too straight and he was releasing the ball at an angle of 11 ‘0 clock as against the usual 1 ‘O clock that is common amongst the leg-spinners and he wasn’t using the crease,” Shahrukh dissects where it was going wrong with Bishnoi.

“The 2019 World Cup was a big lesson for me. I scored so many runs there, but we did not win the World Cup. So I asked myself, what is the use of this? What will I do with these runs? Yes, they remain in your statistics column and all that, but for me, that was of no real use. That is when I decided that I would play for what makes me happy,” he said on JioHotstar’s ‘Captain Rohit Sharma’s Roadmap for T20 World Cup’ show.

“There was a feeling that we were slightly behind in white-ball cricket and needed to push the envelope a little more. Run rates were going up, risk-taking was increasing, and we needed to adapt to that reality,” said Dravid

"With the 11 that we can pick on match day, we've got 11 match winners. Everybody has got a certain 'X' factor about them. They know that there's no guarantee of being the 11. It's about who's suited best for the conditions and how we can help the team win at the end of the day."

Daryl Mitchell, Tim Seifert (w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (c), Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy