India vs New Zealand 2017, 2nd T20I: 5 mistakes that cost India

In the second T20I that was played at Rajkot, New Zealand defeated India convincingly by 40 runs. After a great victory in the first T20I against the Kiwis at New Delhi, India committed several blunders which cost the team the match.

Let’s take a look at five of those mistakes.

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#5 Dropped catches

The famous saying “catches win matches" was proved right at Rajkot. The Indian team looked quite sloppy on the field, and the Kiwi batsmen comfortably got to a total of 196 runs.

In the last ball of the 11th over, Shreyas Iyer dropped Colin Munro at deep mid-wicket.

In the first ball of the 16th over, Munro tried slicing the ball over cover; it went high up, creating a good opportunity to dismiss him, but the catch was dropped by Yuzvendra Chahal.

As a result of these two dropped chances and his aggressive batting, Munro scored his second hundred in T20Is and strengthened his team’s position.

#4 Chahal’s poor bowling

Yuzvendra Chahal has sealed his spot in the Indian playing XI with some brilliant and economical bowling performances.

However, in the second T20I against NZ, his bowling was far from his best.

Chahal's bowling was unimpressive

In the very first over that he bowled, Kiwi opener Martin Guptill hit two big sixes and one boundary. Chahal went on to give away a total of 17 runs in the over. His second over was better, giving away just four runs. In the 10th over, he gave away 11 runs, including a six.

Although he took the wicket of Guptill in his fourth over, he ended his spell with a figure of 1 for 36 at an economy rate of nine runs per over.

#3 Failure of openers

In the first T20I played at New Delhi, both the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan played match-winning knocks which helped the hosts post a convincing win.

In the Rajkot T20I, both Sharma and Dhawan failed to score runs. Dhawan was dismissed by Trent Boult for a score of just one run in the second over.

Dhawan was dismissed for one run

In the last ball of the same over, Sharma tried playing a cover drive away from his body and was caught behind the stumps by Glenn Phillips. He had scored just five runs.

Team India required a good first wicket partnership in this massive run chase, but the openers failed to do so, resulting in India losing the match by 40 runs.

#2 Pandya’s poor show

Hardik Pandya has impressed everybody with his all-round performances over the last year.

But he has failed to score runs in this series - in the last match, Pandya got out for a duck, and in this match, he was dismissed at a score of one run.

Pandya's performance in this series has been severely lacking

He was promoted ahead of M. S. Dhoni in the order with the hope of scoring some quick-fire runs, but he disappointed yet again with his poor batting performance. In the only over that he bowled, he gave away 14 runs and went wicket-less.

#1 Dhoni’s delayed run-scoring

M. S. Dhoni is famous for his game-finishing ability, but the pro failed to do so in this match.

The Kiwi spinners gave Dhoni trouble

He faced difficulties in rotating the strike with skipper Virat Kohli, which eventually put pressure on the latter who was batting pretty well until he got out at 65 runs

Dhoni, with two fours and three sixes, scored 49 runs but this performance was not enough to take the team to victory.