This was turning into something of a familiar drone. The Indian batsmen playing with flurry, then scurrying back to the pavilion in a hurry. The McCullum effect lingers on for New Zealand who make a dash for the victory line. The story of the second Twenty20 match in Wellington was not much different.
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Once again team India knew they had short changed themselves. Unable to get over their hangover to succumb to flamboyance over patient and sustained aggression, they faltered and failed. New Zealand, on the other hand, could not believe the platter they were served, another chance of victory juicily laid out in front of them, if they were hungry enough.
The match took on a life of its own, on two occasions. On the first one, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was contemplating become the captain who had once helped India win the Twenty20 World Cup to become the unsuccessful captain of the same team that would lose to New Zealand. The second life though blinded him (as was evident in his speech a the press conference) to the fact that his team had to do enormously well in the final ten overs to have a say in the match. But upon greater retrospection, Dhoni will realize that India nearly got out of jail but that they were themselves responsible for finding themselves behind bars in the first place!
Jesse Ryder (26) was showing his first signs of his ability to pulverize the opposition while Brendon McCullum had only faced one ball in the first two overs! Ryder’s brief impetus was enough for New Zealand to establish that they were firmly in the driver’s seat and India would have to rely on a miracle to stop the hosts from cantering to what appeared a rather facile win.
New Zealand got to fifty at the end of five overs and were at the half distance mark at the end of ten overs. Things had become insipid for team India, another drubbing ignominiously at the hands of the low lying hoss seemed apparent. With Ross Taylor providing a steady hand and McCullum decided in better control of his own innings than he thought he was in the match winning knock in the first match, New Zealand had this one wrapped up, needing about twenty-eight runs in eighteen balls.
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The game had a second life, so to speak, when Irfan Pathan bowled the eighteenth over. The match literally turned on its head. Pathan picked up two wickets in two balls and set the cat amongst the pigeons. Taylor (27) departed as did Neil Broom and suddenly it was upto the McCullum brothers – Nathan and Brendon – to take New Zealand home.
But it would not be easy. Needing twenty-three from twelve balls, New Zealand were faced with the dogged stubbornness of Pathan to bowl deathly, dot ball Yorkers that kept piling the runs to get. Pathan redeemed himself after he was nearly dropped after his lackluster bowling performance in the first Twenty20 match. Not only did he score handy runs at the end of the Indian innings, but brought the match right back into India’s lap.
New Zealand found themselves requiring nine runs from three balls, and India began to feel optimistic. It would have been disaster for New Zealand to have lost after coming so close and that too while Brendon McCullum was still at the crease. As it turned out, two thumping boundaries off the first two balls meant New Zealand could not lose this game. The single thereafter ensured they had won the series 2-0, humiliated the world champions yet again, and McCullum (unbeaten on 69) once again had his hand in another pulsating Twenty20 show!
P.S. To add injury to insult, Ishant Sharma hurt his shoulder while fielding early in the New Zealand innings, and while his contribution thereafter was negligible, it remains to seen if he will recover in time for the first one day international (ODI) on Tuesday.
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