The Eden Park in Auckland has always been a graveyard for bowlers. Among the grounds that have hosted at least 20 T20Is till date, bowlers have the worst overall economy rate (8.55) at this venue. That’s 1.11 more than the global T20I mean value (7.44).
Not only that, if matches at this venue from the last two years are considered, the economy rate shoots up to a massive 9.72 which is 2.27 more than the global T20I mean (7.45) during this period once again. So these numbers go on to show how batting has only become easier and bowling a lot tougher at this venue.
Hence, when New Zealand and India locked horns in the first T20I of their five match series at Auckland, it was always going to be a run-fest. And, as things stood at the end of the match, both sides scored above 200 runs with India successfully chasing down their target of 204 with six wickets and an over to spare. A total of five batsmen — three from New Zealand two from India — registered fifties in the match. If there was one deck batsmen would have wanted to bat on for all of their life, this pitch at Auckland surely has to be the one.
For the bowlers, however, this venue is nothing less than a torture centre. Most of the times, the battle is lost even before they have bowled the first delivery of the innings. Such is the nature of the pitch and the short boundaries make it even tougher. But Friday was different. We saw two bowlers who refused to give up. Two bowlers who showed that they had the skills to overcome the odds in any situation.
While eight out of the 11 bowlers who bowled in this match conceded runs at an economy rate of 9.00 or more, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal were two among the three bowlers who went at an economy rate of 8.00 or lesser. The other bowler was Shivam Dube who did an excellent job to peg New Zealand back in the middle overs. He picked up one wicket at the expense of just 24 runs in his three overs. However, Bumrah and Chahal’s performances deserve a better pedestal than his as the duo bowled at all stages of the innings, including the death overs.
Both Bumrah and Chahal picked up a wicket each while conceding runs just at a rate of 7.75 and 8.00 respectively. Moreover, both of those wickets came in the death overs. While Chahal dismissed a dangerous Kane Williamson, who was batting on 51 off just 25 deliveries, in the 17th over of the innings, Bumrah got rid off the destructive Tim Seifert in the very next over of the innings. Those two wickets pegged New Zealand back at the end and probably stopped them from getting those 20-30 runs more than what they got at the end.
If they would have scored those runs, it would have become a lot tougher for India to chase it down. They were struggling at one point until Shreyas Iyer came up with the fireworks towards the end. KL Rahul also played his part at the beginning of the run chase and both of them surely deserve the accolades.
But both of these innings would have probably gone in vain if the Kiwis would have gotten that extra 20-run cushion. That’s why Bumrah and Chahal’s spells were so important in the context of the match. While the other Indian bowlers leaked runs at an economy rate of 9.75, Bumrah and Chahal registered an economy of just 7.88 runs per over in this match.