Yuzvendra Chahal Bowls Out New Zealand’s Finn Allen, Becomes India’s Leading T20I Wicket-Taker | Cricket News

The Indian bowlers were on top of their game in the second T20I against New Zealand in Lucknow. In the must-win game for the hosts in the three-match series, New Zealand could not hit a single six batting first and managed just 99/8 in 20 overs. With the pitch offering sharp turn, Hardik Pandya decided to employ spinners from both ends in the powerplay after opening the bowling himself. Wrist spinners Kuldeep Chahal (1/17) and Yuzvendra Chahal (1/4), playing in a T20 together after a while, extracted a lot out of the Lucknow surface while finger spinner Washington Sundar (1/17) produced another tidy spell.

During the innings, Chahal bowled out New Zealand opener Finn Allen in the fourth over to give India the first breakthrough. Chahal was left licking his lips after the first ball of his opening spell. It was a ripper that pitched on leg stump before beating the outside edge of Finn Allen’s bat. The opener perished two balls later trying to reverse sweep with the ball thudding into his back leg before crashing the stumps.

The wicket took Chahal to 91 scalps in the T20I format. He surpassed Bhuvneshwar Kumar (90 wickets) to be become the leading wicket-taker for India in T20Is.

Watch: Chahal Bowls Out NZ Star, Becomes India’s Leading T20I Wicket-Taker

First wicket of the match
9⃣1⃣st wicket in T20Is

Watch how @yuzi_chahal dismissed Finn Allen & became #TeamIndia‘s leading wicket-taker in Men’s T20Is #INDvNZ | @mastercardindia https://t.co/avftf9TvYB

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 29, 2023

The in-form Devon Conway too fell to the reverse sweep as the ball kissed his gloves on way to wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan.

New Zealand were soon reduced to 35 for three in seventh over when the dangerous Glenn Phillips missed a straight ball from Deepak Hooda in his attempt to reverse sweep the part time off-spinner.

Daryl Mitchell got a beauty from Kuldeep that came back in sharply to shatter the stumps.

New Zealand bat deep but none of the batters were able to apply themselves on a testing pitch.

Pacer Arshdeep Singh, who has been guilty of bowling too many no balls lately and Shivam Mavi, were only used in the death overs.

Arshdeep did well to take wickets in his two tough overs and conceded only eight runs. Skipper Hardik ended with figures of one for 25 in four overs.

With PTI inputs

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