Mitchell sends Hardik straight back over his head. He started the over with a six and ends it with another. 

A single off the fifth ball of the 16th over does the job. He has got there in 31 balls. Conway has looked at home against spin and that has helped him the most here. 

Big appeal off the third ball of the 16th over bowled by Daryl Mitchell. Ishan Kishan much more certain this time than he was for that bat pad catch. But in the end, it’s the umpire’s call that’s held up. Bowler Washington Sundar goes down on his haunches before getting up and walking to his mark. 

Kuldeep Yadav bowls out and a loud appeal for a bat-pad catch to the wicketkeeper off the last ball. Pandya takes the review, even though Kishan says that there was no bat of glove on it, India can afford to take a speculative review here. It takes minutes and minutes for all the required replays to come and finally, Mitchell is deemed to be safe. Just two runs in that over. 

Phillips done by the wrong’un. Goes for a slog sweep and holes out to deep midwicket. The partrnership ends at 60 runs off 47 balls.  

Glenn Phillips c Yadav b Kuldeep Yadav 17 (22), New Zealand 103/3 in 13 overs

That also brings up the 50-run partnership. A loose one from Deepak Hooda short of a length and wide and Phillips smacks it past backward point. 

A little flat and short and Conway gets down on one knee to swat it away to the boundary. Sunil Gavaskar says that he delayed his shot a little bit so as to get it past the fielder at the boundary. 

It’s time for drinks. The 10th over is bowled by Pandya and he gives just six runs in it. This match is finely poised at the moment, Allen’s big hits gave New Zealand a good start and Conway has ensured that they haven’t fallen astray after Washington Sundar took those two wickets. Neither side firmly on top as of yet. 

All the eyes and the cameras move away from the ground and on to the big screen as MS Dhoni is shown on it sitting with his wife Sakshi. The former India captain gives the camera a little wave, cue more cheers. 

Conway has raced to 27 off 14 balls while Phillips is on five off seven. The danger has by no means gone  here, these are two extremely dangerous batters in the middle and India would be desperately looking for a wicket here. Kuldeep Yadav gets handed the ball. 

Umran strays onto Conway’s pads, a cardinal sin when bowling to the New Zealand opener, and the latter sends it over long leg. Conway had been content with standing at the other end while Allen went big games but now he has taken charge. 

Washington Sundar bowled three beauties to Mark Chapman after Allen fell and now, a brilliant catch after another fantastic delivery. He sends in a slow one, Chapman comes forward for the defence and the ball comes off the sticker. Sundar is quick to dart towards his right and take a diving catch. It is sent upstairs by the on-field umpires with a soft signal of out and the replays show that Sundar had taken a clean catch. 

Chapman c & b Washington Sundar 0 (4), NZ 43/2 in 5 overs

Allen c Yadav b Washington Sundar 35 (23), NZ 43/1 in 4.2 overs

Finn Allen is on a roll. Uses the turn from Washington Sundar and sends the ball flying over deep midwicket with a slog-sweep. 

Allen slashes hard at the fifth ball of the fourth that is sent in full and wide by Arshdeep. It gets a thick edge and flies over third man for four. 

Length ball from Arshdeep for the first delivery of the fourth and that goes over long-on for a six. He changes the angle immediately and goes around the wicket. 

Arshdeep steers wide and full outside off, Conway reaches for it and puts it past backward point. New Zealand are 23/0 in 2 overs. Washington Sundar comes in for the third. 

Arshdeep has already bowled 2 wides before getting his second delivery right and now the third is bludgeoned along the ground past the bowler by Allen for four. He has scored all of the runs so far for New Zealand, alongwith three wides – Conway yet to face a single delivery. New Zealand 18/0 in 1.3 overs. 

Pandya was punished every time he went full on off by Allen. A fairly good start this for New Zealand. Arshdeep Singh bowls the 2nd over. 

Fifth ball, similar delivery and this time it is bludgeoned to the other side past mid-on for four. Allen has made quite an extraordinary start to his T20 career and this won’t be the same opening batter was out for back to back ducks in the second and third ODIs. 

The fourth ball is pitched up by Pandya, Allen lifts it over covers to send it to the boundary. 

It had happened in the third ODI and Pandya had actually taken a wicket in the over as well. He will bowl to Finn Allen with Devon Conway at the other end. 

First comes New Zealand’s “God Defend New Zealand” and then India’s “Jana Gana Mana” plays. 

“We were challenged in the ODIs. There is no experience like playing India at home. Would be a challenge for some of the new guys. Looks pretty good. The dew is setting in. Would have been good to bowl first. Putting runs on the board and then defending would be challenging. Tom Latham and Nicholls are gone. Chapman and Sodhi are in.”

“We will have a bowl first. Looks like a good track. I can see dew right now and hence we want to bowl first. Just go out there and play the best cricket we know. It is a young team. We will focus on playing good cricket. Playing the ODIs before T20Is makes it easy to pass on. For a lot of them it is an experience just being in the team. Yuzi, Mukesh, Jitesh and Prithvi miss out”

Two of the fastest bowlers going around in international cricket. Both Umran Malik and Lockie Ferguson regularly touch speeds of over 150kph. Ranchi may be a batter friendly pitch but the fact remains that no batter would like a cherry to be rushing at them at those speeds even if the pitch is made of sponge. 

Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner(c), Michael Bracewell, Jacob Duffy, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner

Ishan Kishan(w), Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh

Ravi Shastri’s voice booms around the ground. Hardik Pandya flips the coin and wins the toss. India will bowl first. 

“The pitch looks excellent, it’s hard with an even covering of the grass,” says Ajit Agarkar. “The ball will skid on but there could be a little bit of help with the new ball.” The square boundaries are around 60-odd metres, down the ground it’s into the 70s.

Suryakumar Yadav is India’s T20 vice-captain under Hardik Pandya and he is back in his neck of the woods. The ODI series went with him trying to make the most of whatever overs he could bat at No.5 and he didn’t really make much of  a mark. But New Zealand know that they can pretty much kiss their chances of winning any match goodbye if they allow SKY stick around for more than 10 balls in this series. He has played three innings this year, and scored a century in one of them and his career strike rate is over 180 in 43 innings. 

Unlike India, New Zealand aren’t too drastically changed. Probably the biggest change they have is that there will be no Tom Latham in the T20 series and all-rounder Mitchell Santner will lead the team.

Openers: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan

Middle order: Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c)

Power-hitter: Deepak Hooda

Spinners: Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal

Pacers: Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Mavi

Shaw’s last international appearance for India was also his only T20I match and that came against Sri Lanka on July 25, 2021. He has been quite sensational for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy and has found a way back but Hardik Pandya made it clear that it will be Shubman Gill who will open the innings. 

Once again, there is no Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and it is likely that these players won’t be there in T20 series for the immediate future. Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid have said that India are prioritising ODI cricket considering there is a World Cup that they are set to host later this year and so players who are considered as those who will play that tournament will be playing more ODIs whenever possible among the two white-ball formats. 

The JSCA stadium has hosted three T20Is thus far, with the last one being against New Zealand in November 2021. India had won that match by seven wickets. Before that, India played Australia in October 2017 and Sri Lanka in February 2016, winning both those matches by comfortable margins.

The great man will always be in the conversations whenever a match is being hosted in his hometown of Ranchi. Dhoni is, in fact, at the stadium often nowadays, going through the drills in preparation for the 2023 IPL. He even met the Indian team yesterday, clad in his blue Jharkhand training kit. 

Ruturaj Gaikwad is injured and out for the series but India have not gone for a replacement. There is hence a chance that we could see Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan opening once again, unless the management decide to give Prithvi Shaw a go, of course. That is unlikely considering what Hardik Pandya said during the pre-match press conference. 

Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy, Michael Rippon, Dane Cleaver, Henry Shipley, Ben Lister

Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw

We are back to seeing Hardik Pandya as captain and Suryakumar Yadav as his deputy as India play a T20I series once more. This one serves a double role of a desert after the main course that was the ODI series against New Zealand and a taster before an even bigger meal that will be the much awaited Test series against Australia. There will be a number of faces today that we didn’t see during the ODI series once again. Let’s get to it!