India and New Zealand continue their pretty rapid T20 international series on Friday when the two nations move to Ranchi for the second game of the series, one in which India know if they win they take the spoils with a match to spare.
New Zealand haven’t had the best week they have ever had but they showed good heart in the first game and they will know they have it in them to win this match and take the series to a deciding game on Sunday.
India
You get the impression the first match was a big one for India. It always is important when a new regime or a new era gets underway. There is plenty to work on from that first performance but the important thing is they are doing it from a winning standpoint. If they were to lose that first game then the pressure starts to build on them, particularly after an indifferent T20 World Cup, and then questions come on whether the captain and the coach are good enough.
Those questions might still come but not for a while if they win matches. We should also recognise that India were without some key players in that opening match. Even without some of their stars there is improvements that can come out of their efforts with the ball. In the main they will be delighted with their batting display, although if you were to be hyper critical then you could argue they limped over the line at the end.
New Zealand
It is incredibly harsh to judge New Zealand on that first game because the proximity of it to the T20 World Cup final but actually they weren’t too bad given the circumstances. They were also without some big players but to be fair to them, their replacements came in and stepped up and were counted. In the end there is a case of the conditions being the only thing that beat them and other than win the toss there isn’t a huge amount they could do about that.
If there was an area where New Zealand lost the game it probably came in the last three overs of their batting innings. They struggled to get the death bowling away and didn’t quite maximise their score but again that would be splitting hairs. They didn’t bowl like they can but the dew certainly didn’t help them. Given they were on the rough end of conditions, went in without some key players and were playing three days after losing a major final, I don’t think New Zealand will have been too disappointed with their display.
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Team News
With India building under a new coach and captain you would imagine continuity will be key at this stage of proceedings. That could well mean they go in with the same team as the first game and leave any changes for when the series is won.
New Zealand will surely make changes after that opening match. Jimmy Neesham only missed out because of illness and if that wasn’t Covid-19 related you would think he is in with a chance of playing. Ish Sodhi might come in for Todd Astle who went the distance in the first game.
Betting
We saw in that opening match that the dew is going to play the same havoc with this series that it did with the T20 World Cup so I’m reluctant to bet on the outcome of the match until we know for sure who has won the toss and is bowling first. In saying that, it might be that India win anyway because New Zealand are without a big player too many for my liking but I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the home side if they were batting first.
The boundaries served me well in the first game in this series and even though we go to a smaller ground here in Ranchi, the line has remained the same. I guess the argument is that it was only covered by 1.5 in Jaipur but neither side maximised their innings so there are more boundaries to come. Both sets of batters will be used to the conditions now and can get stuck in a lot earlier in the innings. I like the over once again here.
Tips
Back Over 37.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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