JAIPUR (Rajasthan): After stumbling to a five-wicket loss in the first T20I against India, New Zealand skipper Tim Southee on Wednesday said that the side can take pride in how Mark Chapman batted and took the visitors to a competitive total.
Suryakumar Yadav (62) and Rohit Sharma (48) starred with the bat as India chased down 165 to defeat New Zealand by five wickets in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
"You always want to come out on the right side of the result. We played our best cricket and took it deep. Mark Chapman hasn't played a lot of cricket of late, and to play the way he played was very pleasing to the side. It was a game of fine margins," Southee told host broadcaster Star Sports at the post-match presentation.
"It was a good score, we wanted to start well with the ball but we did well to claw back in the middle and obviously Mitch Santner was outstanding with the ball and to take it deep and take it to the last over was a positive sign for us," he added.
Earlier, Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman played knocks of 70 and 63 respectively as New Zealand posted a total of 164/6. For India, Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned with two wickets each.
"It's always tough with different grounds and stuff like that but we set high expectations ourselves, a little bit off in the field and it's an area we pride ourselves on and that we have been very good at in the last few months. It's always tough, Daryl has got a lot of training and always want to bowl but probably didn't leave him enough runs in the end," said Southee.
With this win, India has gained a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, with the second game set to be played on Friday.
