Key events
4th over: New Zealand 9-1 (Young 9, Ravindra 0) Rachin Ravindra is the man in at three, and India are looking the part already.
WICKET! Conway c Iyer b Siraj 0 (New Zealand 9-1)
The pressure builds and India strike! Conway goes for a nine-ball duck, flicking to the man catching between midwicket and square leg. The ball was on the pads, the shot was on, but he couldn’t keep the ball on the carpet.
3rd over: New Zealand 9-0 (Conway 0, Young 9) Young looks like he wants to leave a Bumrah delivery, but he gets a chunky piece on it, with the ball finding the third-man rope. Bumrah’s moving the ball both ways, the seam immaculate, and this has been more Test than ODI so far, the openers having to be watchful.
2nd over: New Zealand 5-0 (Young 5, Conway 0) Siraj bounces in from the other end, two slips waiting as he shapes the ball away from the right-handed Will Young. The second ball is a touch too wide and short, and Young times the ball nicely behind point for four. Young leaves the next three balls before nabbing a single.
1st over: New Zealand 0-0 (Young 0, Conway 0) Bumrah, from over the wicket, moves a few away from the left-handed Conway before bringing one back in. The opener doesn’t take any risks – a maiden.
The popcorn’s no good. Someone please order me some brekkie. Anyway, Jasprit Bumrah’s got the ball, Devon Conway’s on strike. Let’s play!
The anthems are getting underway. I’m off to make a coffee and sort some breakfast real quick. For some reason, the only thing I’ve got at home is a half-eaten packet of popcorn. (Yeah, I’ve really got my life together.) Let’s hope my choice of sustenance is fitting for the game.
“If I remember correctly, the last time India and NZ played each other in a world cup match in India was the 2016 T20 World Cup, where India were all out for 79 at the hands of Mitchell Santner,” writes John. “Repeat incoming?”
Sounds about right – a proper turner, that pitch in Nagpur. Santner took 4-11, Ish Sodhi’s leggies nabbed 3-18 and Nathan McCullum got a couple too.
The teams:
India are without the injured Hardik Pandya, and Shardul Thakur drops out too. Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav are in for them. New Zealand are unchanged.
India win the toss and choose to bowl first
Rohit tosses the coin and wins the call – India will field. Looks a good pitch, he says, and he’s backing his boys to chase. Tom Latham says he would’ve bowled too.
Here’s a reminder of when these two teams met in the 2019 World Cup semis. What a game.
Preamble
Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to the big one. It’s the two sides who have won four from four, India versus New Zealand.
The hosts have – expectedly – cruised through the opening exchanges, the big names delivering: Kohli and Rohit are in great nick, and Bumrah has 10 wickets across four matches. India’s bowlers have yet to face a ball.
New Zealand shouldn’t surprise us. They were runners-up in 2015 and 2019, and they’ve reached the semis in each of the last three T20 World Cups too – they’re a cracking tournament side. And yet, well, they’ve caught me slightly off guard. Mitchell Santner’s bowled beautifully, topping the wicket-taking charts while going at less than five an over. Each of the top six has reached fifty at least once in the tournament.
So something’s got to give here. I’ll be here to take you through the first half, with play to begin at 9.30am BST. Drop me a line and let’s talk about anything and everything – and by that I very much mean let’s begin dissecting England’s nightmare World Cup defence.
