IND vs NZ | KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer's maturity stood out during their match-winning stand, states Harsha Bhogle
Harsha Bhogle was particularly impressed with the way KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer paced their partnership after the loss of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and helped India win the second T20I against New Zealand. The duo put on 86 runs for the second wicket and helped India take a 2-0 lead.
Indian bowlers were absolutely brilliant and did not let New Zealand score freely, restricting them to just 132 in their 20 overs. Needing 133 runs to win, India were 40-2, with both senior batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma back in the pavilion. Another wicket would have put India into deep trouble. But KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer got together and first kept the scoreboard ticking and negotiating the bowlers that they thought would take wickets. Later, they unleashed some fantastic shots and put up 86 runs for the third wicket, helping India to win by 7 wickets. Harsha Bhogle was extremely impressed with the way the duo batted and believed that India somewhat found an answer to their over-dependence on Kohli and Rohit.
"I have said this before too that KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are taking the pressure off Virat Kohli. It will be interesting to ask them which innings did they enjoy the most in the first T20 where both scored 50 off 20 odd balls or the second T20 where India were 40-2, both picked up ones and twos and finished the game clinically," Bhogle told in a post-match chat show on Circbuzz.
"We have seen Rahul bat and he is in tremendous form. But I wanted to see how Shreyas Iyer bats in this situation and I think he has passed the test."
On a slow pitch, both Rahul and Iyer knew that Mitchell Santner was going to be a dangerous bowler and thus they negotiated him safely and attacked the faster bowlers like Hamish Bennett. They played sensible cricket and handled the situation really well with great maturity.
"It was good to see this kind of maturity from both the batsmen. You always want to put your young batsmen into such situations and see how they respond. Although the target was very less, no Virat and no Rohit and still they managed to win the game so that is a big plus," Bhogle asserted.
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