5 days ago
6
ARTICLE AD BOX
ND vs NZ 2nd T20 SVNS International Cricket Stadium Raipur Pitch Report: India are leading the series 1-0. (ANI Photo)
IND vs NZ 2nd T20 SVNS International Cricket Stadium Raipur Pitch Report: India face New Zealand in the second of the five-match T20I at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Friday. India are leading the series 1-0, having won the first T20I by 48 runs. Suryakumar Yadav’s men are yet to lose a T20I series since their victorious 2024 T20 World Cup campaign and would be looking to keep themselves unbeaten with another edition of the tournament coming up.
Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan will be looking to put up a better show than they did last time around. While Samson is touted to be India’s first-choice opener and wicketkeeper for the T20 World Cup, Kishan has to actively try and stake his claim in the team, having been included in the playing eleven in the first T20I due to Tilak Varma’s injury.
Kishan looked good in his brief stay before being caught at cover. With batting till eight, most Indians players bat in top gear trying to hit every ball out of the park. Kishan would continue with that fearless approach and can only hope that it pays off. Focus has been on captain Suryakumar Yadav’s form ahead of the ICC event and even though he could not make a major contribution, the 32 off 22 balls would have lifted his confidence by a few notches.
Despite the individual areas of improvement emerging from an emphatic win in the first T20, the performance as a team sent ominous signals to rivals ahead of the World Cup where India go in as defending champions
SVNS International Cricket Stadium Raipur Pitch Report
This will be just the second time that Raipur will host a men’s T20I. In the first one, held on December 1, 2023, India had defeated Australia by 20 runs. Spinners Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi had left the Australians in a tangle as they chased a target of 175. That match was before the 2024 T20 World Cup victory and since then, India have drammatically ramped up their aggression with the bat. If they bat first again and Abhishek Sharma or any of the other Indian batter plays another blinder, it could be another uphill struggle for New Zealand.
Raipur weather forecast
Raipur will be bathed in bright sunshine for much of the day and the temperature is expected to be hovering around 20 to 25 degrees Celsius in the nightime, according to Accuweather. Humidity is set to hover between a comfortable 35 to 44 percent over the course of the evening.
English (US) ·