IND VS NZ - 2nd T20I, New Zealand tour of India, 2023

Some strong words from captain Hardik. We don't hear such things when bowlers are made to feel like cannon fodder in this fomat. Anyway, we were treated to a low-scoring thriller and the series is leveled. It's time to bring the curtains down. Tune in on Wednesday for the series decider. For now, it's goodbye.

Suryakumar Yadav, Player of the Match: A different version of SKY today. Adapting to the situation was very important when I went into bat. After losing Washy, it was important for someone to take the game till the end. (On his mix-up with Washington Sundar) It was my mistake, it was definitely not a run, I didn't see where the ball was going. It was a challenging wicket. We didn't think it's turn this way in the second innings but it's important to adapt. We just needed one hit in that over and it was very important to calm our nerves. Before we got the winning runs, he (Hardik) came and told me 'you are going to finish on this ball' and that gave me a lot of confidence.

Hardik Pandya: I always believed that we'll be able to finish the game, but it went quite late. All these games are important with the moments. You don't need to panic because it was about rotating the strike rather than taking the pressure. That's exactly what we did. We followed our basics. To be honest, it was a shocker of a wicket. Both the games we have played on so far. I don't mind difficult wickets. I am all up for that, but these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line the curators or the grounds that we are going to play in should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier. Other than that, happy. Even 120 would have been a winning total. Bowlers - they stuck to their plans and ensured they did not rotate the strike. We kept rotating the spinners. Dew didn't play much part in this. They were able to spin the ball more than us. It was carrying through well. It was a shocker of a wicket.

Mitchell Santner: It was a great game of cricket. To get it so close was a grat effort from the bowlers. If we'd got an extra 10 or 15, could have been the difference. The calmness of Surya and Hardik to get them over the line was pretty good. We bowled 16 or 17 overs of spin, definitely something different. With the bounce out there, it looked challenging. You are not sure what a good total is. 120 might have been a good score. Rotation might have been the difference.

Washington Sundar: All of us have been on our toes and I'm sure everyone in the stadium and people watching on TV as well, and you guys (commentators) as well would have been on toes, hoping that India would get through the line quite easily. It's very very exciting (the conditions). Lot of teams are very well equipped as well, they all come with quite a few fast bowlers and spinners as well. 2/3 out of 10-11 games like these would be amazing and it's again a skill as to how well you play spin and get through the game. It's exciting and we are all happy that we won the game. It was very important for him (SKY) to stay till the end and certain things like that happen in a game. Especially when things get quite tough in the middle, one misjudgement happens.

STAT: Most balls in a T20I where no sixes was hit (FM teams)
239 Ind vs NZ Lucknow 2023 *
238 Ban vs NZ Mirpur 2021
223 Eng vs Pak Cardiff 2010
207 SL vs Ind Colombo RPS 2021

Most overs of spin by a team in a T20I (FM teams)
18 overs Zim vs WI Port of Spain 2010
18 overs Pak vs Aus Colombo RPS 2012
17 overs NZ vs Ind Lucknow 2023 *

22:29 Local Time, 16:59 GMT, 22:29 IST: The Lucknow crowd erupts in joy, Rahul Dravid stands to applaud and Hardik Pandya hugs SKY. Relief in the Indian camp. Who'd have thought that this game would go down to the wire? A lot of credit to the New Zealand bowlers for putting up a spirited fight after India restricted them to 99/8. New Zealand used five spinners and they were mostly on the money to continuously exert pressure on the Indian batters. You know that it's a tough batting track when Suryakumar is struggling. A gun T20 player, SKY struggled to time the ball, got a couple of reprieves and was involved in a mix-up. But he stayed till the end, stitched an unbeaten 31-run stand with captain Hardik and hit his first boundary off his 31st delivery - which also turned out to be the winning runs. 239 legal deliveries bowled and there wasn't a single six hit today. Stick around for the presentations...

Tickner to Suryakumar Yadav, FOUR, 126kph, pace off, short of length outside off, Suryakumar Yadav shuffles across, waits for the ball and slaps it over mid-off. Sufficient elevation to get it over the infield. India level the series with a nervy 6-wicket win!

3 runs | 2 balls.

Tickner to Hardik Pandya, 1 run, short of length outside off, a shuffling Pandya pulls it to mid-on. Allen misses the direct-hit at the bowler's end. Hardik Pandya had given up. Pandya has a smile on his face

4 runs | 3 balls.

Tickner to Suryakumar Yadav, 1 run, 132.9kph, dropped! Tickner goes fuller, hammered back at the bowler and Tickner fails to hold onto a tough return catch. It came at a rate of knots and the ball didn't stick

Hardik Pandya just told Suryakumar Yadav not to crouch and play. 5 runs | 4 balls.

Tickner to Suryakumar Yadav, no run, 137.1kph, hit-the-deck-hard short of length ball, Suryakumar Yadav tries to play a cheeky uppish dab backward of square on the off-side. Misses it as the ball bounces over the edge

5 runs | 5 balls. There's a skipper-bowler chat

Tickner to Hardik Pandya, 1 run, 130.5kph, short of length outside off, Hardik Pandya flashes his bat hard and gets a thick top-edge. The third man fielder was fine and he moved to his left to take it on the bounce

Blair Tickner, right-arm fast medium, comes into the attack

6 runs | 6 balls. Spin or pace? It's the latter....

Ferguson to Hardik Pandya, 1 run, 140.8kph, dug in short, Hardik Pandya pulls and the ball flies over Conway's head off the top-edge. Pandya wants the second but gets sent back by Suryakumar Yadav