1st T20I: Guptill, Chapman fifties power New Zealand to 164/6 against India

Fantastic fifties by Martin Guptill (70 off 42) and Mark Chapman (63 off 50) powered New Zealand to 164-6 against India in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, here on Wednesday.

Apart from Guptill and Chapman, none of the other Kiwi batters contributed much as Indian bowlers made a stunning comeback in the last few overs.

Asked to bat first, New Zealand were off to a bad start as they lost the wicket of Daryl Mitchell in the first over. An outstanding in-swinger from Bhuvneshwar Kumar found the gap between Mitchell's bat and pad before crashing into the stumps.

The wicket brought Mark Chapman to middle and he along with Martin Guptill revived the New Zealand's innings. The duo punished the bad deliveries to keep the scoreboard ticking, taking Kiwis to 41/1 at the end of the powerplay.


Both batters efficiently rotated the strike and didn't go for big hits between 6 to 10 overs. On the other hand, Indian bowlers struggled to find a breakthrough and conceded few occasional boundaries, as New Zealand reached 65/1 at the halfway mark of the innings.

With ten overs to go, Guptill shifted gears and targeted Mohammed Siraj, scoring 16 runs in his over. In the next over, Chapman scored his impressive half-century by slamming Axar Patel's full-toss for a huge six over deep square. Deepak Chahar was hit for 10 runs as Chapman and Guptill brought their 100-run partnership, taking Black Caps to 106/1 after 13 overs.

India were in desperate need of a breakthrough as Ashwin provided that by getting rid of the dangerous Chapman, who was looking for a big shot but the ball crashed into the stumps. Glenn Phillips came to bat next but he couldn't do much and was dismissed by off-spinner in the same over, leaving Kiwis in some sort of trouble.


However, the quick wickets did very little to deter Guptill as he kept on playing his lofted shots and scored his 19th T20I fifty, first against the Men in Blue in the shortest format. His partner on the other side, Tim Seifert was dropped on 7 by Axar Patel in the over bowled by Bhuvneshwar.

With Guptill set, Black Caps were eyeing a big total but Chahar dismissed the attacking opener in the 18th over. Guptill mistimed his shot while trying to go over mid-wicket as Shreyas Iyer came running in and took a good low catch.

From there, Indian bowlers didn't give any freebies to Tim Seifert (12) and Rachin Ravindra (7) and Mitchell Santner (4) and pulled things back in the death overs as New posted 164-6 in 20 overs.


Brief scores; New Zealand: 164/6 in 20 overs (Martin Guptill 70, Mark Chapman 63; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/24) against India - IANS