“We purposely played six batters today” - Suryakumar Yadav opens up on India’s defeat in fourth T20I vs NZ

Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav has opened up on the loss in the fourth T20I against New Zealand, in Visakhapatnam. Notably, India entered this game on the back of a series win by 3-0 with two games left.

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Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Suryakumar Yadav has revealed that India wanted to experiment by fielding six specialist batters, including Hardik Pandya, who didn’t get to bowl in the game.

Interestingly, India went ahead with five proper bowling options. However, the move didn't work out well for the hosts as they suffered a 50-run defeat in the penultimate T20I. The five-match series currently stands at 3-1 in India’s favor.

"We purposely played six batters today. We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves. Like for example, if we're chasing 200 or 180, and we wanted to see if we were two down or three down, how does it look? But then it's fine at the end of the day," Surya said after the game.

"And we wanted to play all the players who are part of the World Cup squad. Otherwise, we would have played other ones,” he added.

"We've been batting really well when we've batted first. So I wanted the guys to take that responsibility if we're chasing 180 or 200, and two wickets or three wickets are down and see how we bat. So it's a good challenge. Hopefully, if we get an opportunity again, we might chase again. But at the end of the day, good learning,” he concluded.

Delving into the details of the fourth T20I, New Zealand was tasked to bat first after losing the toss. They managed to post a daunting total of 215/7 in 20 overs, courtesy of Devon Conway's 44 and Tim Seifert's 62.

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In response, India lost wickets at regular intervals as they got bundled out for 165 runs in 18.4 overs. Shivam Dube was the top batter with 65 runs in 23 balls with three fours and seven sixes. Mitchell Santner scalped a three-wicket haul for the Kiwis.

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