India Falters Against New Zealand

After all the speculation over the last few days about whether India will win and what are India's chances on the tour, it was a fitting end to it all.

India lost the first T20. To any person who hasn't seen the match, it may seem like a close fight, but in reality, the men in blue never looked like winners.

India lost the toss and batted first.

Sehwag started with three Sixers on his first three balls of the tour. Everyone started to think it was going to be a cakewalk for India. But India lost the plot.

Everyone who came in played slog over cricket and got out. No one except Raina made any effort to stay at the crease. Just come in blast it out and get out.

More than anything, I think the team wanted to prove a point—that these new conditions were nothing, and they could just start a run rampage in that small ground in Christchurch.

The bowling was good, but could have been better. When you do not have enough in the board, however, then you have to be excellent.

Nothing should be taken away from New Zealand, however, as they kept their calm while bowling and batting, and won it with ease, 'O' Brien in particular, getting the all-important breakthroughs of Gautam Gambhir and Virender sehwag. Brendon McCullum also batted with calmness, got his fifty and won the Man of the Match.

India made 162-7 with Raina Making 61, and Ian Butler and 'O' Brien got two each. Tim Southee, Daniel Vettori, Nathan McCullum and Jesse Ryder each had one.

New Zealand ended with 166-3, with Brendon getting 56, Zaheer Khan Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma (who was being called 'Patel' by the Kiwi commentary team) getting one each.

This match set the record for maximum sixes in a T20 International with 22.