Virat Kohli misjudges a sitter to give Ross Taylor a reprieve in the 2nd T20I

Virat Kohli would be extremely happy with his team’s performances in the first two T20I matches against New Zealand. The Men in Blue had a disappointing record against the Kiwis prior to this series, especially in the shortest format of the game hence, Virat Kohli and co. were under pressure to perform well. They have now taken a 2-0 lead in the 5-match series thanks to a 7-wicket win in the 2nd game.

Earlier in the series, the solid batting performances of India’s top-order batsmen had helped the visitors record a victory in the first match. The bowlers stepped up and delivered in the second match as they only gave away 132 runs in 20 overs against the destructive New Zealand batsmen. But, there was one moment in the home side’s innings which would have let the Indian fans down and that was when skipper Virat Kohli dropped a sitter in the deep to give life to Ross Taylor.

Virat Kohli fails to execute a catch in the deep, Ross Taylor gets reprieve

This incident happened in the 18th over of the New Zealand innings. Jasprit Bumrah was bowling that over and on the third delivery, Ross Taylor tried to boost the innings’ run rate by smacking a maximum. Unfortunately, he could not time the ball to perfection as the ball was going to land straight into the hands of Virat Kohli who was guarding the boundaries.

The fans felt that Kohli would complete that catch since he is an exceptional fielder however, he dropped the catch. It looked like the Delhi-born player could not see the ball properly in the night sky hence, he ended up misjudging the catch. Luckily for the Indian team, Ross Taylor could not get going in the succeeding overs as he lost his wicket after scoring just 18 runs off 24 balls.

Chasing a modest target of 133 runs in 20 overs, India had lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early but, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer guided the visitors to a comfortable win. KL Rahul won the player of the match award for his solid knock of 57 runs. The third T20I match of this series will happen on 29th January.