![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768365730_454_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
India head into the third match on Sunday in Guwahati with an eye on the series, which is a warm-up ahead of the T20 World Cup starting on February 7 in India and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
The left-handed Kishan, who returned to the Indian team in the opener after two years, lifted the hosts from 6-2 with a string of boundaries.<\/p>\n
Kishan was named player of the match and Suryakumar was all praise for his comeback star.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what Ishan had for lunch in the afternoon or what pre-workout he had before the game, but I\u2019ve never seen anyone bat at 6 for 2 in that manner and still end the powerplay around 67 or 70,\u201d Suryakumar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was incredible. Chasing 200 or 210, this is what we want from batters — to go out there, express themselves, be happy in their own space. And that\u2019s exactly what he did today.\u201d <\/p>\n
He reached his fifty in 21 balls with a four and kept up the charge until his departure off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi. Kishan struck 11 fours and four sixes in his 32-ball knock.<\/p>\n
Suryakumar reached his first fifty in the format for 468 days — and 23 innings — after which he raised his bat and looked up to the skies amid the applause.<\/p>\n
His previous half-century was against Bangladesh on October 12, 2024. Suryakumar, who hit nine fours and four sixes in his 37-ball blitz, and the left-handed Shivam Dube, who struck 36, put an unbeaten partnership of 81 to pulverise the opposition.<\/p>\n
Matt Henry and Jacob Duffy took a wicket each in the first two overs before Zak Foulkes conceded 24 runs off the third over, which started with a no ball for four and three wides.<\/p>\n
– Valiant Santner –<\/p>\n
Earlier, New Zealand posted 208-6 with skipper Mitchell Santner hitting an unbeaten 47 off 27 balls in a late blitz by the number seven batter.<\/p>\n
New Zealand started strongly with opener Devon Conway and Tim Seifert taking on the opposition attack in a quickfire 43-run stand.<\/p>\n
Medium-pace bowler Harshit Rana dismissed the left-handed Conway for the fourth time in successive white-ball matches to start with a maiden wicket. Conway made 19 off nine balls.<\/p>\n
Wicketkeeper-batter Seifert, who made 24, soon followed his opening partner back to the pavilion as he fell to Varun Chakravarthy\u2019s spin.<\/p>\n
Glenn Phillips kept up the attack in his brief stay of 19 runs and, after his departure, the left-handed Rachin Ravindra took the lead in his 44 off 26 balls.<\/p>\n
India struck regular blows including two to left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav but New Zealand batters kept up the pace and Foulkes finished with a six and a four, but the effort was not enough to challenge India.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come up against a side that bats deep on a really good wicket, that\u2019s the way India have come out — with intent from ball one,\u201d said Santner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess they have a licence for every batter. For us, it\u2019s about trying to squeeze wherever we can. But on the flip side, we also know we probably have to go a bit harder, knowing that 200 or 210 isn\u2019t enough anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blistering knocks by skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan led India to a crushing seven-wicket win over New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[2620,1724,64,63,689,226626,226621,226622,740,226619,192330,133419,1209,226629,176678,226628,45901,12538,163885,226623,45895,137509,1736,677,226627,226625,88445,12540,85,1210,226624,18784,58866,158194,226620,116756,45883],"class_list":["post-433346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-blistering-knocks","tag-chhattisgarh","tag-comeback-star","tag-cricket","tag-electric-start","tag-glenn-phillips","tag-hobart-hurricanes","tag-india","tag-indian-demolition","tag-indian-team","tag-ish-sodhi","tag-jacob-duffy","tag-kuldeep-yadav","tag-left-arm-wrist-spinner","tag-maiden-wicket","tag-matt-henry","tag-mitchell-santner","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-opposition-attack","tag-raipur","tag-shivam-dube","tag-southern-asia","tag-sports","tag-sri-lanka","tag-star-pair-led","tag-steven-smith","tag-suryakumar-yadav","tag-sydney-sixers","tag-third-wicket-stand","tag-tim-seifert","tag-zak-foulkes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}