Tilak Varma made an unbeaten 51 from 26 balls to guide India to a four-wicket win over New Zealand with only one delivery to spare Saturday in the second Twenty20 cricket international. India took a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The second match appeared to be slipping away from India when New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner took 4-21 through the middle of the innings but the tourists again found a way to win against the odds. Tilak came to the crease with 112 runs still needed to overtake New Zealand’s total of 180-5. He put on 42 for the sixth wicket with Naman Dhir (31), then guided India home in an unbeaten stand of 69 with Nitish Kumar Reddy for the seventh wicket.
It won the opener by four wickets with two balls remaining.
At the midpoint of its innings, New Zealand was 66-3 and it was clear there was not going to be a repeat of the first match of the series on Thursday in which 455 runs were scored. Phillips again rallied the New Zealanders as he did in the first match in which he scored an unbeaten 82 from 40 balls. He reached his half century Saturday from 48 balls while Jacobs, cautious at first, made 50 from 41 deliveries.
“Honestly speaking, when we lost consecutive wickets we thought that the game was going away from us but Tilak and Reddy showed immense character. India won that match by completing the highest successful T20 run chase in its history.
“I feel that every individual in our game is a match-winner,” India captain Shreyas Iyer said. “Today we saw the example of that.
