Pic credit: gettyimages

There were many raised eyebrows when Tim Southee and Trent Boult were kept out of the final eleven. No other team can think of going without what is hailed as the best New Zealand pace duo ever. But the fruits of the decision were taken after the game.

India can be easily adjudged the best players of spin among the International cricketing fraternity. But on Tuesday when they were the favourites, the batting line up fell like a pack of cards, against a not so known spin attack of the Kiwis. Chasing a paltry 126, the Indian team’s exquisite form before the tournament only suggested that win was just a matter of time. But it was not so.

The batting failure resulted in the team’s 46 run defeat. The Nagpur pitch was a rank turner and the batsman failed to smother the spin, giving wickets at regular interval. Questions were also asked about whether the pitch was fit for a T20 game, as the pitch was slow and the ball turned invariably.

Setting aside the debate on the pitch, the much-flaunted Indian batting line-up did not take lesson when the Black Caps were batting first on Tuesday. When Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, of all people, were getting the ball to grip, rip and bounce, one should have known that batting won’t be an easy task.

Shikhar Dhawan played a nothing sweep to Nathan McCullum first up. From then on it was a procession. Mitchell Santner took over and mesmerized the batsmen with his classic left-arm spin. Rohit Sharma stepped out and couldn’t make a contact with the ball, only to be stumped. Suresh Raina once again perished to a leading edge, and Yuvi did not try to hang around for too long either. As long as Kohli was around, though, there was hope — and plenty of it — but he too fell for a rather loose shot outside off stump against the impressive leg-spinner Ish Sodhi.

“I think there were quite a few soft dismissals from our batsmen. There was no partnership at all,” said Dhoni after the match. “When you’re chasing 125 or so, we all knew the wicket was slightly on the slower side but the good thing is that we restricted them; I think 140 would have been a par score on a wicket like this. I think the bowlers did a good job. It was the batting department which could’ve done slightly better. We lost one wicket every alternate over and once the top order gets out like that, it becomes more and more difficult.”

But it is also worth pointing out here that on a pitch where New Zealand spinners combined for figures of 11-0-44-9, the more seasoned Indian spinners went for 12-0-74-3. Ravichandran Ashwin never fully recovered from the two sixes he conceded in the first over and Ravindra Jadeja was so seemingly perplexed by the turn on offer that he lost his line, bowling four wides in the process. Dhoni’s thumbs bore the brunt of his indiscipline

The biggest surprise though of the night has to be the New Zealand spinners. They thoroughly outperformed their Indian counterparts, and immense credit must go to Williamson for picking three spinners and leaving out the likes of Trent Boult and Tim Southee.

For India, this is a wake-up call. 79 all-out is not how one would expect tournament favourites to begin their campaign.

And going forward, the Indian think-tank would do well to be careful what kind of pitch they wish for.