Picked in the Indian squad for the home series against New Zealand after finishing as the top wicket-taker of IPL 2021 and Harshal Patel made his debut in the second T20I against New Zealand at Ranchi on Friday night.
The 30-year-old picked up two wickets after Rohit won the toss and elected to bowl first and helped restrict NZ to 153/6. Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips were his two victims.
Martin Guptill and Mitchell gave New Zealand a blistering start, smashing 48 runs off the first 26 deliveries. It was only after Rahul Chahar managed to pick the wicket of Guptill in the fifth over, caught-behind by Pant on 31, that India managed to stem the run flow. From 42/0 in 4 overs, NZ were 73/1 after 8 overs even as Axar Patel picked up the day's second wicket in the ninth over - Mark Chapman out on 21.
The left-arm spinner dished out a flighted delivery and pitched it up as Chapman launched it straight to the fielder in the deep, leaving New Zealand to 79/2 after 8.5 overs. Spinners Axar and Ashwin along with debutant Harshal Patel kept things tight in the next few overs with Glenn Philips and Mitchell at the crease.
In order to break the shackles, a low full toss from Axar was smashed by Glenn Phillips to long-off, where Venkatesh Iyer failed to grab the catch. However, the Kiwis couldn't take advantage of the dropped catch as Harshal got his first wicket in international cricket by dismissing Mitchell (31 off 28).
It was again the slower delivery, the same weapon that made him the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2021 which worked for Patel as Mitchell holed out to Suryakumar Yadav at long-on.
Tim Seifert came to bat next and tried to steady Black Caps's ship along with Glenn Phillips, helping their team cross the 100 run mark in the 13th over. The duo added some valuable runs for New Zealand before Ashwin returned back to get rid of Seifert, who tried to play a reverse sweep but the ball went straight to short third man.
Soon, Harshal Patel got rid of Glenn Phillips (34), putting New Zealand in deep trouble at 137/5 after 16.3 overs. From there on, the next few batters -- James Neesham (3), Mitchell Santner (8), Adam Milne (5) couldn't do much. All of India's bowlers took pace off their deliveries and didn't offer anything in the arc as New Zealand couldn't find the fence in their last 29 balls and in the end could score 153/6 in 20 overs.
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