New Zealand got off to an electric start after being asked to bat first in the second T20I against India in Raipur’s Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium. With Devon Conway opening the batting and Arshdeep Singh taking the first over, the Kiwi southpaw teed off early on, subjecting the seamer to an unwanted record.
Conway picked up three boundaries and a six in the very first over, good for an 18-run tonking to get the match going against one of India’s premier seamers. This is only the second time that an Indian bowler in the first over of a T20I innings has conceded as many runs – and no bowler for the men in blue has ever conceded more.
Arshdeep was liable for providing Conway too much width early on, allowing the batter to free his arms and take the charge early in his innings.
The highest runs conceded in an over is now shared by Arshdeep with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who conceded 18 runs in a match against Ireland in 2022, when Paul Stirling took him to the cleaners.
NZ off to rapid start in Raipur, 111/3 after 10
Things wouldn’t improve for Arshdeep in his following over: kept on by Suryakumar Yadav, he conceded 18 more. This time, it was the second opener who took him down, as Tim Seifert scored four consecutive boundaries to close out the over.
Arshdeep conceded 36 off his first two overs – but shockingly, still doesn’t hold the most expensive over of the innings at the time of writing. After a wicket-maiden in which he sent Devon Conway packing for the fourth time on this tour, Harshit Rana was punished by Rachin Ravindra, who dispatched him for 19 runs to close out the powerplay.
On a dream batting surface in Raipur, New Zealand are off to a strong start in terms of the rate of runs they are scoring. However, in addition to Harshit’s dismissal of Conway, Varun Chakravarthy dismissed Seifert – only to be met by a 16-run over at the hands of Rachin Ravindra.
Glenn Phillips would also begin to tee off against Kuldeep Yadav, but the leg-spinner battled back to dismiss the batter in the very same over.
India will be hoping that the positive batting conditions stay in play through the match, which would allow their own devastating opening duo of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson to get off to such a start.
