Two scraggy-haired, bearded men, Tilak Varma and Nitish Reddy, who speak the same language, Telugu, and often use it to chide each other over running between the wickets, had lovely smiles plastered on their faces after they pulled off a special T20 win. This format often throws up yawn-fests, but every now and then comes a beauty like this second T20I between India and New Zealand, on a not-so-easy Christchurch pitch to bludgeon big hits.

India chased down 181 and lead the five-match series 2-0. Tilak finished on 51 off 26 balls, Nitish on 26 off 13. “My coaches told me before the game that entire India believes in me and if I stay till the end, we shall win, and I stayed till the end and I am proud I did it,” said Tilak after the win. He also mentioned the cameo from Naman Dhir, who kickstarted the chase with a breezy 31 off 17. Without the two Telugu youngsters, it would have gone in vain.

New Zealand had been rescued in much the same way.…