Kiwis Hold Nerve in Chasing 150

Posted by on Feb 28, 2009 in Cricket

Wicket Keeper batsman Brendon McCullum stayed right till the end to see New Zealand chase down a moderate target of 150 in the 2nd and final T20I at Wellington. New Zealand had major hiccups towards the end of their chase but were bailed out by a cool knock from Brendon McCullum. The Black Caps had got a smashing start of 50 plus inside 5 overs from Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum and the match looked to be wrapped in about 15 overs itself. However the brakes were put on by the spin combination of Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja who succesfuly stifled the run scoring.

India had a huge problem though in making a match out of the target of 150 because of a shoulder injury to Ishant Sharma on the field. The lanky fast bowler could only bowl a couple of overs in the match. MS Dhoni had bowled out Zaheer Khan before the final few overs and the onus was left on Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh to do the difficult part. For New Zealand, Brendon McCullum did the right thing by staying there in a determined manner.

In the 18th over, Irfan Pathan gave an opening for his team when he had dismissed Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram in consecutive deliveries to make the equation a tricky one at 25 from 15 balls. The last over needed 12 to get and Irfan shone well in the first three balls with yorkers making it 9 from 3 but he failed to give the knock out punch by leaking two boundaries to Brendon McCullum (69* from 55 balls with 8 fours and a six to get the Man of the Match award for the second time in a row).

Related News