Raipur, 23 January. Captain Suryakumar Yadav (82 not out, 37 balls, four sixes, nine fours) and Ishan Kishan (76 runs, 32 balls, four sixes, 11 fours), who returned to the team after two years, showed their natural style while returning to the rhythm here on Friday and with their explosive half-centuries, India defeated New Zealand by seven wickets with a record 28 balls to spare in the second T20 International. The hosts, who defeated the visitors by 48 runs in Nagpur two days ago, secured their second consecutive comfortable win and took a crucial 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
1⃣0⃣0⃣th Men’s T20I at home
Joint-highest successful run-chaseA memorable outing for #TeamIndia
Relive the match highlights
#INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/RMgKA9ISpe
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 23, 2026
Made a new record by achieving the target of more than 200 runs in 28 balls.
New Zealand, forced to bat first at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, had scored 208 runs for six wickets. In reply, Team India scored 209 runs for three wickets in just 15.2 overs. The important aspect of this win was that the hosts won with 28 balls to spare, which is the highest total while chasing more than 200 runs in T20 Internationals. Earlier this record was in the name of Pakistan, which had achieved the target of 205 runs with 24 balls remaining against New Zealand last year.
As breathtaking as it can get
#TeamIndia sail over the finish line with 7⃣ wickets to spare in Raipur
With that, they lead the series 2⃣-0⃣
Updates
https://t.co/8G8p1tq1RC#INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/UXOo96Qbup
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 23, 2026
After a bad start, Suryakumar and Kishan became the architects of an easy victory.
However, while chasing the relatively tough target, India got off to a bad start when openers Sanju Samson (six runs, five balls, one four) and Abhishek Sharma (0) returned within three balls for just six runs. But Kishan and Surya, who failed in Nagpur, picked up speed as soon as they landed. The result was that by the end of the powerplay of the first six overs, 75 runs were on the board.
Surya-Ishaan’s partnership of 122 runs, captain added unbroken 81 runs with Shivam
Gaining momentum before the T20 World Cup, Suryakumar not only ended the half-century drought that had been going on for 23 innings, but he also made it easy for the team by making 122 runs on just 49 balls with ‘Player of the Match’ Kishan for the third wicket and then with Shivam Dubey (36 not out, 18 balls, three sixes, one four) for the fourth wicket with an unbroken partnership of 81 runs on 37 balls. Victory ensured. Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy and Ish Sodhi shared three wickets among themselves.
Packing a punch!
Ishan Kishan is the Player of the Match for his blistering knock of 7⃣6⃣(32), including 1⃣1⃣ fours and 4⃣ sixes.
score card
https://t.co/8G8p1tq1RC#TeamIndia | #INDvNZ | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @ishankishan51 pic.twitter.com/eTYdv0AfPv
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 23, 2026
Equaled his own record while chasing the biggest target
With this, India equaled its record of successfully chasing the highest score in T20 International. The team had earlier scored 209 runs while chasing against Australia in Visakhapatnam in 2023.
Kiwi captain Santner and Rachin’s useful innings are meaningless
Earlier in New Zealand’s innings, Rachin Ravindra (44 runs, 26 balls, four sixes, two fours) and captain Mitchell Santner (47 not out, 27 balls, one six, six fours) batted aggressively at different stages and took the team beyond 200 runs. Apart from these two, opener Tim Seifert (24 runs, 13 balls, five fours) could go above 20.
score card
Ravindra, who came at the third position, added 55 runs for the third wicket with Glenn Phillips (19 runs, 13 balls, one six, two fours), while Santner, who came at the seventh position, along with Jack Foulkes (15 not out, eight balls, one six, two fours) took the team to 208 runs with an unbroken 47-run partnership.
Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav (2-35), who were included in the playing eleven in place of injured Akshar Patel and rested Jasprit Bumrah, proved their usefulness. Kuldeep provided relief to the host camp by taking two important wickets in the middle overs in the form of Ravindra and Phillips. Harshit, Varun Chakraborty, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dubey shared four wickets among themselves.
The hosts will go for a decisive lead on January 25 in Guwahati.
India will now try to take a decisive lead in the series from the third match to be played on January 25 in Guwahati. The last two matches will be played in Visakhapatnam (January 28) and Thiruvananthapuram (January 31).
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