“Much to admire about him”: Harsha Bhogle lauds Washington Sundar’s invaluable rise as power-hitter post maiden half-century in Ranchi T20I

After a 0-3 defeat in the ODI series, New Zealand have finally managed to get a win under their belt in the ongoing tour of India win a 21-run victory during the first T20I against India, at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi. The victory has thus put the Kiwis 1-0 ahead in the three-match series.

Batting order of both the sides were left scrambling for answers on a pitch which provided significant turn for the spinners right from the get-go, but an overall better performance from the Kiwi batters proved to be the difference in the end.

After being invited to bat first, and despite India playing with three spinning options, crucial half-centuries off the bats of wicket-keeper batter Devon Conway (52 off 35) and Daryl Mitchell (59 off 30) helped them post 176/6 on the scoreboard.

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Mitchell’s power-packed knock, which included smashing 27 runs during the final over of the innings off Arshdeep Singh helped them post a challenging total.

In reply, team India had no answers to pacer Jacob Duffy’s opening spell with the new ball, and then later were absolutely clueless while facing the Kiwi skipper and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (4-1-11-2), who even bowled a rarest of the rare maiden Over to Suryakumar Yadav within the powerplay.

Harsha Bhogle lauds Washington Sundar’s invaluable rise as power-hitter

India did have some positives to take from the match, with the biggest one being allrounder Washington Sundar. Not only did he bowl exceedingly well (4-0-22-2) on a spinning track, but also handed some crunch blows down the order to smash his maiden half-century (50 off 28 deliveries) in T20Is with the help of 5 Fours and 3 Sixes.

Renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle was mighty impressed with Sundar’s power hitting game, and took to his social media handle post the match to take note of his rise as an ‘invaluable player’ in the Indian team.

While his batting lower-down the order has significantly improved, he is also a handy asset with the ball, with the ability to bowl economically during the Powerplay especially in the T20 format.