Tilak Varma's 51* Rescues India From 112/6 to Win 2nd T20I and Lead Series 2-0
India beat New Zealand by 4 wickets in the second T20I at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday, October 24. They chased down 181 in 19.5 overs, with one ball to spare. India lead the five-match series 2-0. Tilak Varma was unbeaten on 51 off 26 balls, and Nitish Kumar Reddy finished on 26 not out off 13.
India won the toss and chose to bowl. New Zealand made 180 for 5. Glenn Phillips scored 70 off 43 balls, with 4 fours and 4 sixes. Bevon Jacobs added 58 off 46 balls. The two put on 116 runs for the fourth wicket in 76 balls, after New Zealand were 41 for 3. Arshdeep Singh took 2 for 33. Prince Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Nitish Reddy took one wicket each. Tilak Varma also took two catches in the field.
India's chase began well. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma took the score to 40 before Samson fell for 14. Then Mitchell Santner turned the game. He finished with 4 for 21 in his four overs. He removed Abhishek Sharma (27), Shreyas Iyer (7), Axar Patel (11) and Naman Dhir (31). Nathan Smith had Vaibhav Sooryavanshi caught for 4, and Jacob Duffy had Samson caught.
India were 112 for 6 in the 15th over. They needed 69 runs from 31 balls. Tilak Varma and Nitish Reddy then added an unbeaten 69 runs in 30 balls. Tilak hit 6 fours and a six. His strike rate was 196. The 19th over from Nathan Smith went for 18 runs, which left India needing 11 from the last over.
Duffy bowled that final over. Tilak hit a four through extra cover off the second ball. He brought up his fifty with two runs off the next ball. New Zealand were also penalised for a slow over rate in the closing stages, so they had to keep an extra fielder in the ring. Nitish Reddy took two runs off the fifth ball to complete the win.
The third T20I is on Tuesday, October 27, at Sky Stadium in Wellington.