Who is the Man of the Match today IND vs NZ: Who was awarded Man of the Match in India vs New Zealand 1st T20I?

Man of the Match today IND vz NZ: The Indian batter won the match award for scoring his third T20I half-century tonight.

During the first T20I of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of India in Jaipur, India beat New Zealand by 5 wickets to win the first-ever T20I at this venue.

After India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited New Zealand in to bat first, the visitors scored 164/4 in 20 overs on the back of a 109-run partnership for the second wicket between Martin Guptill (70) and Mark Chapman (63). New Zealand, who at one point in time looked to touch the 180-run mark, lost wickets in the death overs to dent their progress.

With bowling figures of 4-0-23-2, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of their bowlers. Other than break Guptill-Chapman stand by dismissing the latter, Ashwin had sent Glenn Phillips (0) back to the pavilion in the same over to apply break to the opposition’s innings.

Making his way back into the Indian Playing XI, Bhuvneshwar Kumar also registered economical bowling figures of 4-0-24-2 dismissing New Zealand opening batter Daryl Mitchell (0) and wicket-keeper batter Tim Seifert (12) in the process.

Man of the Match today IND vz NZ T20I

Chasing a 165-run target, India prospered on the back of Sharma (48) and Suryakumar Yadav’s (62) impact-generating contributions. Taking on from a 50-run opening stand between Lokesh Rahul (15) and Sharma, the pair put together a 59-run partnership for the second wicket to build a solid foundation.

In what is his third T20I half-century, Yadav yet again thrived at No. 3 hitting six fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 155. In four innings at No. 3, Yadav now has 176 runs at an average and strike rate of 58.66 and 164.48 respectively.

With the Indian middle-order didn’t respond as well as they would’ve liked to, they had somehow managed to reduce to equation from needing 23 runs off four overs to 10 runs off the last over. It was eventually wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, who stepped out against Mitchell to hit the winning boundary over mid-off.

“I’ve been doing nothing different, I try to bat the same way in the nets and replicate the same in the game. I put a lot of pressure on myself in the nets, if I get out I go into the dressing room and think what better I could have done,” Yadav told Star Sports after winning the ‘Man of the Match’ award during the post-match presentation ceremony.