Guptill milestone tempered by T20 defeat

Martin Guptill is back on top of the world’s Twenty20 International runscoring chart, but it was a bittersweet feeling for the Black Caps opener, as his side slid to a series defeat against India yesterday (NZ time).

In their must-win game two in Ranchi, the tourists were crushed by seven wickets, as India cruised to their target of 154 with 16 balls to spare.

For the second time in three days, New Zealand failed to capitalise on the death overs of their innings, after Guptill had again got them early momentum.

Following his 70 off 42 in Thursday’s (NZT) opening-game five-wicket defeat in Jaipur, the 35-year-old hit a bright and breezy 31 off 15, in a knock where he surpassed India superstar Virat Kohli (sitting out this series) as the leading run-scorer in the format.

Guptill had sat at the head of that table for a year from February 2018, but with 3248 runs (at an average of 32.48 and strike rate of 136.64), has now gone 21 ahead of Kohli, with newly instated India T20 skipper Rohit Sharma rounding out the top three, with his 3141 more than 500 ahead of fourth-placed Australian captain Aaron Finch.

‘‘I guess it’s a nice recognition of the hard work that goes into it,’’ Guptill said of the feat. ‘‘There’s some great names in there, isn’t there, some great players, and hopefully I can stay up there for a little bit longer yet. But these sorts of things are meant to be taken over, so I’m sure in time it will be . . . At the end of the day, it’s all about the runs that I score for the team, contributions and things like that, that’s the more pleasing thing.’’

The dashing right-hander, who has played a New Zealand-record 111 matches in the format, credited an improvement in body strength for being able to hit the ball further in more recent years, and revealed where his trademark head-down follow-through on big shots has come from.

‘‘It’s probably giving him a wee bit of a big head here, but it was something Scott Styris brought back from the IPL one year, and I just started doing it out of nowhere, really, and it’s just sort of stuck with me.’’

But despite Guptill laying a platform, and Glenn Phillips also making a handy 34 off 21, the Black Caps managed just 28 from their last five overs, in similar scenes to game one where after Guptill’s dismissal the visitors added just 14 off the last 16 deliveries.

‘‘Obviously it’s nice to bat with the field up, you get away with a few,’’ Guptill said. ‘‘But India’s spinners are fantastic, they do a great job in pegging you back. So looking forward to the third game, we’ve just got to find another way of scoring runs and rotating and putting pressure on their bowlers.

‘‘We just haven’t quite got the end of our batting innings well enough in the last couple of games, so hopefully we can sort that out.’’

The final game of the series is in Kolkata tomorrow (NZT) and captain Tim Southee, who on the back of his impressive 3-16 in the heavy loss is now just seven wickets behind Bangladesh spinner Shakib Al Hasan (117) for most T20I wickets, is looking for his side to finish on a good note, ahead of the two-test series, starting Friday.

‘‘It’s been a hectic schedule, not only this, but obviously on the back of the World Cup,’’ Southee said. ‘‘But the guys have got one last push. A number of guys go home after this next game, so hopefully we can finish the tour on a high.

‘‘It’s another opportunity to represent your country, so I don’t think you need any extra motivation to get yourself up.

‘‘It’s a great place to play cricket.’’

‘‘There’s some great names in there, isn’t there, some great players, and hopefully I can stay up there for a little bit longer yet. But these sorts of things are meant to be taken over, so I’m sure in time it will be.’’ Martin Guptill