Suryakumar Yadav shines at night!

Skipper Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav produced sublime knocks as India bungled towards end before recovering in time to fashion a fivewicket win over New Zealand in the opening T20I ushering in a new era in Indian cricketMartin Guptill 70 off 42 and Mark Chapman 63 off 50 took New Zealand to 164 for six on a good batting surfaceRohit rocksIndiarsquos chase was set up by Rohit 48 off 36 who made his fulltime captaincy debut and Suryakumar Yadav 62 off 40 who came in at number three in place of rested Virat KohliThe home team was cantering to a comfortable win but messed up the chase in the final four overs In the end with New Zealand running out of bowling options the job was done in the 20th over bowled by parttime pacer Daryl MitchellNew Zealandrsquos Mark Chapman during his innings of 63 yesterday PicAFPDebutant Venkatesh Iyer hit his first ball in international cricket for four before Rishabh Pant got the winning runsThe game marked the start of a new chapter in Indian cricket with Rohit as T20 skipper and Rahul Dravid as head coach With both teams resting some of their key players as part of workload management it was very much an even contest before the first ball was bowledIndia raced to 50 for no loss in five overs with Rohit playing some delightful shots He got going with back to back fours off Tim Southee in the third over before unleashing his signature front pull on the final ball of the overThe seasoned pace duo of Southee and Trent Boult were put under pressure upfront by both the openers KL Rahul 15 off 14 got into the act with a massive six over deep square leg off Boult before Rohit hit another pull shot to collect 21 from the overRahul fell to a soft dismissal on the first ball of Mitchell Santerrsquos spell to give New Zealand a wicket against run of playSuryakumar meant business from ball one and the most memorable shot of his innings was the pickup stroke off Lockie Ferguson to get to his third T20 fifty Both Rohit and Suryakumar should have gone on to finish the game but that didnrsquot happenFrom a straight forward 23 off the last 24 balls India made it complicated by making the equation to 10 runs off the last overAshwin shinesEarlier Guptill and Chapman ensured New Zealand were well placed for a 180 plus total on a batting beauty but Ravichandran Ashwinrsquos double strike in one over put the brakes on the scoring rate Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers for India taking two for 23 in four overs while senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar 224 in four overs too got his swing backBrief scoresNZ 1646 in 20 overs M Guptill 70 M Chapman 63 R Ashwin 223 B Kumar 224 lost to India 1665 in 194 overs S Yadav 62 Rohit 48 T Boult 231 by 5 wicketsAlso Read Yadav unites with his fury babiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever