‘Stronger Together’: Virat Kohli & Co. hand India Republic Day present with clinical show; fans thrilled

Indian cricket fans were treated to yet another masterclass performance as India cruised to an easy victory over hosts New Zealand in the ongoing 5-match T20I series.

Stronger together. ?? Happy Republic Day to all of us. Jai Hind ?? pic.twitter.com/HRP8fQ27XS

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) January 26, 2020

New Zealand batting first on a good looking wicket at Eden park Auckland but put on a below-par total of 132 runs on the board. The openers gave a bright start as Guptill clubbed two sixes of Thakur’s bowling in the very first over. Although bowlers did their best to get a wicket, Guptill and Munro went on steadily to make a decent powerplay score of 48-1 with the dashing right-hander dismissed on the last ball of the powerplay.

Jaddu comes to the party!

It was an excellent spell of orthodox left-arm spin bowling by the experienced all-rounder Jadeja as he restricted new Zealand’s batsman throughout the middle overs. He had a great control as he has always shown with his bowling and managed to pick up the black caps captain as his second wicket in as many overs. Overall he did not concede even a single boundary in his entire spell of 4 overs which went on for just 18 runs. He was definitely a man of the match candidate but the honours went to Rahul.

KL Rahul excels

With a below-par total of 133 to chase it was interesting to see how Indian batsmen would approach their innings. Only after India played we could confirm that it was not an easy wicket to bat on and anything around the 150 mark would have given us a thrilling game.

KL Rahul continued his excellent form with the bat and flourished at one end even though Rohit didn’t get off after smashing a couple of boundaries. Rahul was always middling the ball from one end and the skipper came and went after scoring 11(12), it was left to him and Iyer to close out this chase. They didn’t make a huge fuss of it and things were completed in the 18th over of second innings when Dubey smashed a six of Southee.

Iyer milked the bowling but failed to close out the target as he was dismissed towards the end but Rahul carried his bat all the way and ensured India went on to win the second match.

The next T20I is scheduled to be held on 29th of Jan at Hamilton and it’ll be interesting to see if India can go on to win the series in that encounter.

KL Rahul's last 20 innings in Limited Overs Cricket:

Runs – 991
Average – 55.05
SR – 116.73
? – 2
Fifties – 9

•Rahul scored most 50+ in last 20 LOI innings for India and 2nd most runs yet he's the man whose batting position is not confirmed. He has proved himself everytime!!

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 26, 2020

The support at Eden Park for India makes it seem like Eden Gardens. Amazing consistency from KL Rahul , and Shreyas Iyer getting better with each game. But a special mention to the bowlers today- Shami, Bumrah , Jadeja were top class. Clinical win #INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/hhIcoMzLP7

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) January 26, 2020

So once again I say – KL Rahul is India’s best T20 batsman. It’s taken a while and some luck for India to realise that #NZvIND

— Hemant (@hemantbuch) January 26, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qeUg6O_FJ8