Twitter Reaction: New Zealand spinners topple Team India

New Zealand started the World T20 2016 on a winning note by successfully defending a modest 126 on a turning pitch at Nagpur. Kiwi captain Kane Williamson read the pitch perfectly and picked 3 spinners in his XI. The spin bowling trio of left spinner Mitchell Santner, leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, and off-spinner Nathan McCullum shared 9 wicket wickets out of the 10 wicket today to totally deflate the Indian batting order.

Though New Zealand lost 3 early wickets, Corey Anderson (34) and Luke Ronchi (21* off 11 balls) made sure that New Zealand had a decent total of 126/7 in 20 overs on board. 5 out of 6 Indian bowlers got a wicket each and surprise package was Suresh Raina who took 1 wicket for 16 runs in his 4 overs. Jasprit Bumrah, however, was the pick of the Indian bowler, taking figures of 1/15.

Indian openers, who have been in tremendous form, disappointed this time as Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were dismissed cheaply. Kohli tried to anchor the chase with a well made 23 but failed unfortunately and Dhoni tried his best with a 30 run knock. But the Kiwi spinners choked the life out of Indian batting on a turning pitch and India lost wickets regularly. Eventually, India were bowled out for 79 in 18 overs and lost the match by 47 runs. Mitchell Santner was adjudged as the Man of the Match.

Twitter was abuzz with tweets citing the poor batting performance for a team that had won 10 out of 11 T20I matches before this one: