India Make Cricket History With 181-Run Chase From 70/5 Against New Zeland

All of Gautam Gambhir and Shreyas Iyer’s hard work bore fruit on Saturday as Tilak Varma produced a sensational unbeaten 51 off 26 balls to help India pull off a remarkable four-wicket victory over New Zealand in the second T20I. India shot down 181 with one ball to spare — the highest successful chase after losing five wickets for 70 or fewer runs, for a full-member nation in T20I history.

The previous highest successful chase was 174, recovering from 40/5 by Sri Lanka against Australia in 2017.

In Christchurch, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner led the major first-half collapse, claiming four wickets for 21 runs. Sanju Samson (14), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (4), Abhishek Sharma (27), Shreyas Iyer (7) and Axar Patel (11) fell as India slumped to 70 for five.

Naman Dhir briefly revived India’s hopes with an aggressive 31 off 17 balls before Santner dismissed him in the 15th over, leaving Tilak Varma with the responsibility of steering the chase.

Tilak rose to the challenge, smashing an unbeaten 51 off 26 deliveries, including six fours and a six, and reaching his half-century off 25 balls. He found an ideal partner in Reddy, who hammered an unbeaten 26 off 13 deliveries, including a four and a six.

The pair stitched together an unbeaten, also record-breaking 69-run stand off just 30 balls to turn the contest around, sealing a remarkable four-wicket victory to extend the series lead to 2-0.

“I feel that every individual in our game is a match winner, and today we saw an example of that,” a happy Shreyas said after the match. “Like, honestly speaking, when we lost wickets, especially consecutive wickets, we thought that the game was going away from us. But Tilak and Reddy, they showed immense character, and also a great cameo by Naman Dhir.”

He also admitted there were still areas for improvement.

“I think we played a lot of dot balls initially, and that basically piled up the run rate as well, and also when we went in, we wanted to actually cruise, but they bowled amazing, especially Bracewell and Santner, the way they controlled the game in the middle. It wasn’t easy to strike the ball, but I think if we would have picked up the gaps and tried to find boundaries, we could have easily cruised. But unfortunate. You know, it happens. Just another day, and I’m sure that we’ll bounce back pretty strong,” he added.