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The blackcaps have thrashed India once again in an ICC tournament match by 8 wickets. This is the 4th successive defeat India faced in all ICC events against New Zealand.
The last time they defeated a kiwi side, Sourav Ganguly was the captain of the Indian side back in 2003.
We saw Indian batters struggling in front of disciplined bowling by the Kiwi bowlers from the beginning. But things started to change fast for India when Southee picked IPL flamboyant KL Rahul at deep backward square leg.
Ish Sodhi came in like a wrecking ball to the Indian team in that match. He picked Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in two consecutive overs. The top order was back to the pavilion cheaply.
Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner were the power spinning duo that brought upon hell on this Indian batting lineup. Santner finished with a stunning figure of 4-0-15-0 which caused tremendous pressure on the batters.
And Sodhi picked up the best two batters of the Indian side with his lethal leg-spin and googlies. Boult picked up 3 wickets in his death overs whereas Southee and Milne shared a wicket each.
India crumbled for 110 at the fierce bowling display of the New Zealanders. If we dig a little deeper behind the reason for this kind of ridiculous display of batting from Team India, we can find some pieces of the unsolved puzzle.
Top-order batters, who were selected for the national team, underperformed during the UAE leg of the IPL 2021. Clearly, the team was selected on the basis of recent performances of the batters in different domestic leagues of India.
But doubts started to cloud when players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav were clearly out of their magical touch. And as it seems now, the players are mentally and physically fatigued after the month and a half long IPL leg and now the T20 World Cup after a 7-day rest only.
The team is suffering the consequences of a long tour and the result is quite visible in their body language and performances.
New Zealand, on the other hand, have shown their charismatic and disciplined form of cricket once again. India’s small total could not cause any sort of problem for them.
They were known as the good guys of cricket with no titles. The Jinx was broken by them with the Test Championship Trophy against this very Indian Team.
India risk their semi-final spot and reputation to New Zealand with this defeat. The tables have turned, Indians are the ones who will be searching for another chance (Mouka) to break their 18 years long losing streak against New Zealand.