Billie Jean King Cup :India lose to New Zealand to remain in Group I
With the loss, India finished third in Asia/Oceania Group I with three wins and two defeats.
In the ongoing fourth T20I between India and New Zealand at the Wellington Regional Stadium, two pitch invaders breached the security and entered the field during New Zealand’s innings.
The first incident occurred during Navdeep Saini’s over, which was the second of the New Zealand innings. An intruder entered the field and ran past Indian captain Virat Kohli after the third delivery of the over.
However, after the security personnel got hold of him and took him away another intruder repeated the same one delivery later. The security officers were quick to react again as they took the second intruder off the field as well.
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Earlier on the day, New Zealand skipper Tim Southee, who is holding the post in the absence of injured Kane Williamson, won the toss and opted to bowl first in the ongoing T20I of the five-match series.
Kane Williamson is out due to shoulder injury and is replaced by Daryl Mitchell in the team. Tom Bruce comes in for Colin de Grandhomme.
Manish Pandey then took India to 165 with a brilliant fifty after a flurry of wickets in the middle overs paralysed the scoring rate. Meanwhile, Kl Rahul, who scored 39 off 26, was the second-highest run-scorer for India.
Wickets fell at regular intervals for India, but Pandey dug in his heels on one end to help India reach a respected total. Shardul Thakur’s 20 off 15 towards the end helped India’s cause.
Sanju Samson, who was roped in for Rohit Sharma, got an opportunity to open the innings but the right-handed batsman could not capitalise it as he fell to Scott Kuggeleijn in the second over of the innings after scoring just 8 runs. Skipper Virat Kohli also did not bother the scoreboard much and became the victim of Hamish Bennett on his individual score of 11.
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