Suryakumar Yadav (AP Photo)India captain Suryakumar Yadav (left) shakes hands with New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)Suryakumar Yadav (AP Photo)India captain Suryakumar Yadav (left) shakes hands with New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)Suryakumar Yadav (AP Photo) NEW DELHI: Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav spoke candidly after his team suffered a 50-run defeat against New Zealand in the fourth T20 International on Wednesday. Despite the loss, Suryakumar said the match was part of a bigger plan as the team wanted to test itself in pressure situations ahead of the World Cup.India decided to chase after winning the toss, though they have celebrated success by batting first in recent matches.
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Suryakumar explained that the decision was taken to push the batsmen out and make them take responsibility while chasing big totals.“I feel like we intentionally fielded six batsmen today. We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and we wanted to challenge ourselves. Like if we’re chasing 200 or 180 and we wanted to see if we were two or three down, what does that look like? But then at the end of the day it’s OK. And we wanted to play all the players that are part of the post-match presentation that we would play in the lineup after the World Cup.”He added that the team wanted to test their ability in batting second. “We batted really well when we batted first. So I wanted the guys to take that responsibility if we’re chasing 180 or 200 and two wickets or three wickets down and we’ll see how we bat. So it’s a good challenge. Hopefully if we get another chance we can chase again. But at the end of the day, good learning,” Suryakumar added.New Zealand took full advantage of the batting conditions and posted 215 for seven. Tim Seifert scored a quick 62 and Devon Conway added 44 as the visitors reached 100 in just over eight overs. India later fought back as Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets each. Daryl Mitchell then gave New Zealand a late boost with an unbeaten 39 off 18 balls.Despite a strong counter-attack, India’s chase never quite settled down. Shivam Dube smashed 65 off 23 balls while Rinku Singh made 39. However, wickets kept falling and India were bowled out for 165 in 18.4 overs. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner played with the ball and finished with figures of 3 for 26.
