Ish Sodhi urges New Zealand players to disrupt India’s momentum

11/03/2017

Ish Sodhi is of the opinion that, in T20 cricket, momentum is the key to winning matches and New Zealand have to try and disrupt India’s momentum to keep the series alive. Sodhi also claimed that the Kiwis have shown that they can play spin way better than the sides that have visited India lately.

Before the ongoing T20I series, India had lost five of their six Twenty20 Internationals, with one washed out, against New Zealand. But in the first match of the series, India asserted their all-round dominance with a resounding 53-run victory making the second T20I at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, on Saturday, a do-or-die match for the visitors. In the first match, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan scored half-centuries and stitched together a record 158-run partnership in order to give the hosts a solid start. Sodhi feels that the partnership proved to be a key moment in the game and sealed the momentum in India’s favour.

"T20 cricket is all about momentum and I think they (India) put on a good partnership at the start that set up the momentum for the rest of the game. I think that's just about recognising those key moments and how we can slow their momentum down," Sodhi said, as reported by PTI.

After Australia’s abject surrender in the limited-overs series, the Kiwis came as a breath of fresh air and tackled the Indian spinners in the first ODI in Mumbai to take a 1-0 lead in the series that they eventually lost 1-2. But that match made a lasting impact on the minds of cricket fans and Sodhi attested to the same saying that they could play spin much better than the teams that had travelled to India lately.

"I think we put up a fantastic performance in Mumbai (in the first ODI of the three-game series lost by the visitors 1-2) and played pretty well for that win. I think the second game is the only one we kind of struggled with. But the third ODI was a fantastic game and I think we chased extremely well. We showed that we can play spin a lot better than sides that have come here in the past.”

The dew caused a lot of difficulties for the New Zealand bowlers and fielders in New Delhi and is likely to make an appearance in Rajkot, which has traditionally favoured batsmen. Sodhi stated that they haven’t taken a look at the pitch yet and will chalk out their strategy after that.

"Every game we play, we try to put on our best performance and try to win for our country and we're going to approach the same way. We'll come to the ground tomorrow, have a look at the wicket, distinguish how we're going to play and hopefully combat the conditions well enough to come out on top. Being 0-1 down in a series is always tough, but it's two games to come and we'll have to give our best shot," said the Ludhiana-born cricketer.

The leg-spinner came to India with the New Zealand A team, and also took a fifer in the second four-day fixture against the India A to strengthen his chances of being part of the senior side on their India tour. And he vindicated that faith by picking a couple of wickets in the first T20I in New Delhi while conceding a mere 25 runs in four overs.

"I'd like to think that I've improved a lot since the last time I came here. Generally, the driving force is trying to improve and I got 2 for 25 the other day. It's been nice to spend extra time here with the A team, so the acclimatisation has been a lot easier since the last time I was here," he said.

Ish Sodhi urges New Zealand players to disrupt India’s momentum

Comments

0 Comments