IND vs NZ Highlights: India beat New Zealand by 6 wickets to level the series 1-1

Suryakumar Yadav (26 not out) and Hardik Pandya (15 not out) used all their experience to help India edged New Zealand by six wickets in a last-over thriller at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday. The duo held their nerves in the low-scoring thriller as India levelled the three-match series 1-1 with a scrappy victory in the second Twenty20 International.

A different version of SKY today. Adapting to the situation was very important when I went into bat. After losing Washy, it was important for someone to take the game till the end. It was my mistake, it was definitely not a run, I didn’t see where the ball was going. It was a challenging wicket. We didn’t think it’s turn out this way in the second innings but it’s important to adapt. We just needed one hit in that over and it was very important to calm our nerves. Before we got the winning runs, he (Hardik) came and told me ‘you are going to finish on this ball’ and that gave me a lot of confidence.

Player of the match: Suryakumar Yadav (26* off 31; 1x4s)

I always believed that we’ll be able to finish the game, but it went quite late. All these games are important. You don’t need to panic because it was about rotating the strike rather than taking the pressure. That’s exactly what we did. We followed our basics. To be honest, this was a shocker. Two games, the kind of wickets we’ve played on … I don’t mind difficult wickets, I am all up for that. But these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line, curators should make sure that they prepare the game previously rather than having a couple of games there. Other than that, I’m happy. Even 120 would have been a winning total. Bowlers – they stuck to their plans and ensured they did not rotate the strike. We kept rotating the spinners. Dew didn’t play much part in this. They were able to spin the ball more than us. It was carrying through well. It was a shocker of a wicket.

India skipper Hardik Pandya

It was a great game of cricket. To get it so close was a great effort from the bowlers. If we’d got an extra 10 or 15, it could have been the difference. The calmness of Surya and Hardik to get them over the line was pretty good. We bowled 16 or 17 overs of spin, definitely something different. With the bounce out there, it looked challenging. You are not sure what a good total is. 120 might have been a good score. Rotation might have been the difference.

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner

All of us have been on our toes and I’m sure everyone in the stadium and people watching on TV as well, and you guys (commentators) as well would have been on toes, hoping that India would get through the line quite easily. It’s very very exciting (the conditions). Lot of teams are very well equipped as well, they all come with quite a few fast bowlers and spinners as well. 2/3 out of 10-11 games like these would be amazing and it’s again a skill as to how well you play spin and get through the game. It’s exciting and we are all happy that we won the game. It was very important for him (SKY) to stay till the end and certain things like that happen in a game. Especially when things get quite tough in the middle, one misjudgement happens.

Washington Sundar (10 & 1 for 17)

What a thrilling end to the match. Suryakumar Yadav (26* off 31) hit his only boundary off the penultimate ball of the run chase to take India home in the low-scoring thriller. India chased down the 100-run target with a ball to spare and six wickets in hand. India levelled the three-match series 1-1 with the win.