‘We need to stop India’s momentum’

The Black Caps lost the series opener at New Delhi by 53 runs and face a must-win situation on Saturday in the second Twenty20 game at the SCA Stadium to keep the three-match series alive. 

“I think we put up a fantastic performance in Mumbai (in the first ODI of the three-game series lost by the visitors 1 -2) and played pretty well for that win. I think the second game is the only one we kind of struggled with. But the third ODI was a fantastic game and I think we chased extremely well. We showed that we can play spin a lot better than sides that have come here in the past,” said Sodhi at the pre-match media conference. 

“T20 cricket is all about momentum and I think they (India) put on a good partnership at the start (a record 158 runs between openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma) that set up the momentum for the rest of the game. I think that’s just about recognising those key moments and how we can slow their momentum down,” he said. 

“Every game we play, we try to put on our best performance and try to win for our country and we’re going to approach the same way. We’ll come to the ground tomorrow, have a look at the wicket, distinguish how we’re going to play and hopefully combat the conditions well enough to come out on top. 

Being 0-1 down in a series is always tough, but it’s two games to come and we’ll have to give our best shot,” said the Indian-origin cricketer. 

Sodhi was part of the Black Caps squad that came for the World T20 Championship last year and had also spent quite a bit of time prior to the series by touring India with the New Zealand A squad. “I’d like to think that I’ve improved a lot since the last time I came here.

Generally, the driving force is trying to improve and I got 2 for 25 the other day. It’s been nice to spend extra time here with the A team, so the acclimatisation has been a lot easier since the last time I was here,” he said.