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Following India's win over New Zealand in the second T20I, Indian batter Tilak Varma reflected on an encouraging message from the head coach Gautam Gambhir and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, in which they told him that the whole country believes in him. He also spoke about showing the right intent and strike rotation against spin.
It was two Hyderabad boys, the local boy Tilak and the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) star Nitish Kumar Reddy, who steered India to a memorable win to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. While at one point India was down 70/5, a quickfire 31 from Naman Dhir and then a 69-run stand between Tilak and Nitish pulled things back for India. The Hyderabadi duo batted exceptionally in the death overs, accelerating really well and running those hard doubles whenever needed. Speaking during the post-match, Tilak, who scored an unbeaten 51* in 26 balls, said, "At that stage (after losing five wickets) I was just thinking about playing till the end. Just before todays game, I was talking with coach Gautam sir and Sitanshu Kotak Sir. I was talking with both of them, and they said one thing that we all believe, and the whole of India believes in you. If you stay till the end, then you will win the game for us. So that is what was going through my mind. I wanted to take the game as deep as possible, and at the end of the day, again, what everyone has believed and have done. So I am really proud of myself." Speaking on his 42-run stand with Naman, his fellow Mumbai Indians (MI) teammate, Tilak said that the conversation was about running hard between the wickets and trying to stay till the end, with the wicket being slower than the first T20I. "I was telling Naman that we will stay till the end, and especially the wicket was slightly slower today, compared to the last game. So I was telling Naman that we will push hard in running between the wickets when spinners were bowling. So that is what our plan was, and we pushed hard when they were bowling, and unfortunately Naman got out in the last over of Mitchell Santner. Otherwise, I think we would have finished the game in 19th over, sorry, 18th over. So credit goes to Naman as well, the way he batted, but after that, you know, the Hyderabadi boys are in play today, Nitish Reddy and myself, and we are really happy that we finished the game," he said. On showing intent against spin, he said that there were plans to show attacking intent when the ball was in their hitting arc or else run hard by putting the ball into gaps. "I think four to five doubles we have got against spinners, they were really crucial, those eight to ten runs. So I think we played smartly there, and later on we know that we can hit sixes against the fast bowlers. We needed that pace in this huge ground. So we were waiting for that, and we finished off in style," he signed off. Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bowl first. They had New Zealand down 41/3 within the powerplay. Glenn Phillips (70 in 46 balls, with four boundaries and sixes each) and Bevon Jacobs (58 in 46 balls, with five fours and a six) led New Zealand's recovery after an early top-order collapse against India after Kiwis were down 41/3 within powerplay, stitching a 116-run stand for the fourth wicket, taking NZ to 180/5 in 20 overs. Besides Arshdeep's 2/33, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prince Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy got a wicket each. While chasing 181 set by New Zealand, the world champions collapsed from 40/0 to 112/6, with Mitchell Santner's four-fer causing havoc in the middle overs. The hope was reinstated by a quickfire 31 in 17 balls (with a four and three sixes) by Naman Dhir, and it was Tilak (51* in 26 balls, with six fours and a six) and Nitish (26* in 13 balls, with a four and a six) who took India to victory with a ball left. India is 2-0 up in the five-match series. (ANI)
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