October 24: India beat New Zealand by four wickets with one ball remaining in the second men’s T20I at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, recovering from 70/5 to take a 2–0 lead in the five-match series. Tilak Varma finished unbeaten on 51 from 26 balls and Nitish Kumar Reddy made 26 not out from 13 as the visitors reached 181/6 in reply to 180/5. Cricket World’s match report describes the late partnership as the decisive recovery.
Key highlights
- India won by four wickets at Christchurch and lead the five-match series 2–0.
- Tilak Varma was Player of the Match after an unbeaten half-century.
- Mitchell Santner’s 4/21 put New Zealand in control before India’s late recovery.
- Glenn Phillips scored 70 and Bevon Jacobs 58 in New Zealand’s 180/5.
- The third T20I is scheduled for October 27 in Wellington, according to the ICC.
Match at a glance
The New Zealand Cricket archive records India winning the toss and choosing to field. Its completed scorecard, rather than an earlier live-score snapshot, establishes the final result and Tilak’s award.
| Item | Confirmed detail |
|---|---|
| Match | Second T20I, October 24, 2026 |
| Venue | Hagley Oval, Christchurch |
| New Zealand | 180/5 in 20 overs |
| India | 181/6 in 19.5 overs |
| Result | India won by four wickets, one ball remaining |
| Player of the Match | Tilak Varma |
Phillips and Jacobs rebuild after early wickets
Cricket World’s report describes a restrained opening phase for the hosts, who were 43/3 after six overs and 66/3 at halfway. India had removed Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell and Finn Allen, forcing New Zealand to rebuild before accelerating. The slower halfway position mattered: Phillips and Jacobs were repairing the innings as well as trying to create a defendable total.
The NZC scorecard shows Phillips making 70 off 43 balls, with four fours and four sixes, while Jacobs contributed 58 off 46. Their fourth-wicket stand took New Zealand from 41/3 to 157/4, a recovery of 116 runs. Michael Bracewell then contributed 10 not out from the only two balls he faced, helping the hosts finish at 180/5.
The partnership gave New Zealand a competitive target after the early damage, but the innings never became a completely one-sided assault. In our reading, the contrast between rebuilding and finishing explains the total better than treating all 20 overs as a single scoring phase. India’s early wickets had created pressure; the middle-order pair prevented that pressure from becoming a collapse.
Santner turns India’s chase into a rescue mission
Moneycontrol’s completed scorecard shows Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma adding 40 before the first wicket. Samson made 14 from 17 balls, Abhishek 27 from 21, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi four from eight, and captain Shreyas Iyer seven from 11. The wickets arrived faster than India could rebuild its scoring momentum.
Santner removed Abhishek, Iyer and Axar Patel, then later dismissed Naman Dhir, finishing with 4/21 from four overs. Moneycontrol records Axar’s contribution at 11 and Dhir’s at 31 from 17 balls. India were 70/5 after 10.5 overs and 112/6 after 14.5. Dhir’s three sixes provided a bridge between the collapse and the decisive final partnership, even though he could not finish the chase.
Those figures explain why the final margin understates the difficulty of the win. Four wickets remaining can sound comfortable in isolation. Here, however, the batting resources were already stretched while the required rate was climbing. India needed a sustained late acceleration, not simply a final-over boundary after an uncomplicated chase.
Tilak and Nitish change the finish
The ICC says the unbeaten 69-run seventh-wicket stand surpassed India’s previous T20I mark of 63 by Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya against New Zealand in 2019. That record adds context, but the immediate importance was simpler: neither remaining batter was dismissed as India converted an increasingly demanding equation into a successful chase.
AFP’s report, carried by The Daily Star, describes India scoring 68 from the last 4.5 overs, with Nitish striking the winning runs. That figure and the 69-run partnership are not contradictory. The last wicket fell at 112/6 after 14.5 overs; India were 113/6 after 15 overs. The two descriptions start at different points in the innings.
Our calculation: moving from 112 to the target of 181 required 69 runs, with 31 legal balls available after 14.5 overs. From 113 after 15 overs, the requirement was 68 from 30. India finished after 19.5 overs, leaving one legal ball unused. Cricket over notation is not a decimal: 19.5 means 19 completed overs plus five balls, or 119 legal deliveries.
How the final over unfolded
India needed 11 from the last six balls. SportsTak’s ball-by-ball account records Jacob Duffy conceding a single, a four, two runs and another single before a wide and Nitish’s winning two. The extra delivery matters when reconstructing the equation: a wide adds a run without using a legal ball.
| Delivery | Outcome | India’s score | Runs still needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | Nitish single | 171/6 | 10 from 5 |
| 19.2 | Tilak four | 175/6 | 6 from 4 |
| 19.3 | Tilak two; reaches fifty | 177/6 | 4 from 3 |
| 19.4 | Tilak single | 178/6 | 3 from 2 |
| Before 19.5 | Duffy wide | 179/6 | 2 from 2 |
| 19.5 | Nitish two | 181/6 | Target reached |
What the result means for the series
The ICC lists the remaining matches as Wellington on October 27, Auckland on October 30 and Hamilton on November 1. India therefore need one more win to secure the five-match series, while New Zealand must win all three remaining games to take it. Those are the mathematical possibilities after two completed matches, not a prediction of the remaining results.
For India, the immediate positive is the ability of the lower order to recover a chase after the top order faltered. For New Zealand, Santner’s control and the Phillips–Jacobs recovery show that the match contained strong performances despite the defeat. The next contest will test whether the hosts can turn such periods of control into a complete result—and whether India can avoid needing another rescue at the finish.
File photo: Tilak Varma visiting the sets of Peddi on March 18, 2026. Image: Buchi Babu Sana, from a YouTube video released under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped video still; not a photograph of the October 24 match. Original video · Photo source · Licence
Sources
- New Zealand Cricket archive: New Zealand v India, second T20I completed scorecard
- ICC: Tilak, Nitish hold their nerve as India take 2–0 lead
- Cricket World: India win by four wickets in last-over thriller
- Moneycontrol: New Zealand vs India full scorecard
- AFP via The Daily Star: Late India charge seals thrilling second T20 win over New Zealand
- SportsTak: Second T20I ball-by-ball match commentary
The Sports Desk covers cricket, the Asian Games and Indian and international sport. Stories are checked against at least two credible sources before publication.
