IND vs NZ 2nd T20I: How India chased 181 from 70 for 5

India beat New Zealand by four wickets in the 2nd T20I at Hagley Oval on Saturday, chasing 181 with one ball to spare, and now lead the five-match series 2-0. Tilak Varma made 51 not out off 26 balls and was named player of the match.

For most of the evening it looked like New Zealand's game. India were 70 for 5 in the 11th over after Mitchell Santner took 4 for 21, and they still needed 69 off 31 balls when Naman Dhir was out. They got there because the man walking in at No. 8 was a batter, not a bowler.

IND vs NZ 2nd T20I: the scores

• New Zealand 180/5 in 20 overs (Glenn Phillips 70 off 43, Bevon Jacobs 58 off 46; Arshdeep Singh 2/33, Prince Yadav 1/30, Nitish Kumar Reddy 1/31, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/50)
• India 181/6 in 19.5 overs (Tilak Varma 51* off 26, Naman Dhir 31 off 17, Abhishek Sharma 27 off 21, Nitish Kumar Reddy 24* off 12; Mitchell Santner 4/21, Jacob Duffy 1/38, Nathan Smith 1/34)
• Result: India won by 4 wickets with 1 ball to spare. India lead the series 2-0.
• Toss: India won the toss and chose to bowl.
• Player of the match: Tilak Varma

How New Zealand got to 180

India's bowlers had New Zealand at 41 for 3 inside six overs. Arshdeep had Tim Seifert caught by Tilak in the second over, Bhuvneshwar removed Daryl Mitchell in the third, and Prince Yadav bowled Finn Allen in the sixth.

Glenn Phillips and Bevon Jacobs then put on 116 for the fourth wicket, from the sixth over to the end of the 18th. They took it slowly at first, and New Zealand were only 66 for 3 after 10 overs, but they scored 114 in the second half of the innings. Phillips hit four fours and four sixes before Arshdeep had him caught by Naman Dhir for 70. Jacobs made 58 off 46.

Arshdeep (2 for 33) and Prince Yadav (1 for 30 in four overs) were the pick of India's bowlers. Bhuvneshwar went for 50, so in two games back he has 1 for 99 in eight overs.

Prince Yadav's yorkers kept India in the game

Prince Yadav came into the side in place of Mayank Yadav and gave India something they missed on Thursday: a fast bowler who could land the ball in the blockhole. In the first T20I every Indian bowler went for 40 or more. On Saturday Prince went for 30 in four overs, and India were chasing 181 rather than 220.

His first ball of the match was a wide, his third bowled Finn Allen. Allen tried to flick a full ball and Prince's yorker hit the stumps, which left New Zealand 41 for 3 in the sixth over. That over cost three runs.

India used him at every stage of the innings:

• Over 6 (powerplay): 3 runs and the wicket of Allen.
• Over 11 (straight after drinks): 7 runs. Jacobs was dropped off him at mid-off, a simple chance, and the only boundary was an inside edge off another yorker that ran past the keeper.
• Over 17: 13 runs, his one expensive over, with Jacobs hitting two fours.
• Over 20: the last over of the innings. His first two balls were yorkers, and he gave away five runs from the first five balls before Michael Bracewell paddled the last one over the keeper for four.

By our count, eight of his 24 legal balls were dots. Among India's bowlers, only Axar Patel (0 for 28) gave away fewer runs in four overs. In an innings where Phillips and Jacobs added 116, Prince was the one bowler New Zealand never got on top of. If Jacobs had been caught in the 11th over, his figures would have looked even better.

The chase, in four stages

1. A slow start (44 for 1 after six overs). Matt Henry opened with a maiden to Sanju Samson, the first of the series. Abhishek Sharma hit Henry over cover for six and was caught off a Duffy no-ball, but Samson never got going and was caught by Phillips for 14 off 17. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, in for the injured Ishan Kishan, batted at No. 3.

2. Santner's spell (from 44 for 1 to 70 for 5). Nathan Smith had Vaibhav caught for 4 off 8 balls. Then Santner came on and took the game away from India: Abhishek caught at deep midwicket for 27, Shreyas Iyer bowled trying to hit a 77 kph ball over the leg side, and Axar Patel caught by Finn Allen two balls later. India had lost two wickets for one run in the 11th over, and needed 111 off 55 balls, more than 12 an over.

3. Naman Dhir's counter-attack (70 for 5 to 112 for 6). Naman hit Lockie Ferguson for six first ball of the 12th over and went after both spinners, with sixes off Santner and Michael Bracewell. He was dropped at point on 9. Tilak let him take the strike. The pair added 42 in four overs before Santner had Naman caught by Phillips at cover off a 74 kph slower ball, for 31 off 17.

4. Tilak and Nitish (69 off 30 balls). When Nitish Kumar Reddy walked out, India needed 69 off 31. They got there with a ball to spare, without losing another wicket:

• Over 16 (Smith): 13 runs, all with Nitish on strike, including a four over mid-off. 55 needed off 24.
• Over 17 (Ferguson): 9 runs, all ones and twos. 46 needed off 18.
• Over 18 (Duffy): 17 runs. Nitish hit the first ball straight for six, and Tilak hit two fours. 29 needed off 12.
• Over 19 (Smith): 18 runs, all to Tilak. Three fours, one of them a pull that went through a diving Phillips's hands, then a six over cover off the last ball. 11 needed off 6.
• Over 20 (Duffy): New Zealand were behind the over rate, so they had only four fielders outside the circle. Tilak hit the second ball for four and reached his fifty with two. With 2 needed off 2, Duffy bowled a wide and Nitish ran two off the next ball to win it.

Tilak Varma's 51: the numbers

Tilak came in at 69 for 4 in the 11th over, and he was 10 off 9 balls when Naman was out. He made his next 41 runs off 17 balls. Over the last three overs, when India needed 46 off 18, he scored 34 off 13 balls, with six fours and a six. All six of his fours came in those three overs.

Two days ago, in the first T20I, Tilak was sent in at No. 3 and made 6 off 11. India later said it was because of Ishan Kishan's groin injury. Back in the middle order on Saturday, he did what he did against West Indies, when he made 44 not out off 18 in Ranchi and 43 off 25 in Hyderabad from the same kind of position. The middle order is where he does his best work.

Why eight batters won India this match

India picked eight batters again: Samson, Abhishek, Vaibhav, Iyer, Axar, Tilak, Naman and Nitish, with only Bhuvneshwar, Arshdeep and Prince Yadav after them. That left them with three specialist bowlers, and Naman (one over) and Nitish (three overs) had to bowl the rest.

The case against it is easy to make, because the extra bowling cost runs: Nitish went for 31 in three overs. But on Saturday the benefit was much bigger than the cost.

• When the fifth wicket fell at 70, India still had three proper batters left: Tilak, Naman and Nitish. A side with seven batters would have had two, and would have been playing for the No. 8 to survive.
• When Naman was out at 112 for 6, the next man in was Nitish, who made 24 not out off 12. With seven batters that would have been Bhuvneshwar, Arshdeep or Prince Yadav, with 69 needed off 31.
• India's top five made 63 off 66 balls. Nos. 6 to 8 made 106 off 55, a strike rate of 193.

It is not a one-off. In Thursday's record chase of 226, Nos. 6 to 8 made 68 off 32 balls, with Naman's 42 not out finishing it. Across the two games, India's Nos. 6, 7 and 8 have scored 174 runs off 87 balls, a strike rate of exactly 200, and both chases ended with Naman and Nitish or Tilak and Nitish at the crease.

The batting depth also takes pressure off the top order. Samson, Abhishek and Vaibhav have been free to go hard in the powerplay because they know there is batting behind them. On a night when they failed, it caught India.

Where New Zealand lost it

Santner's 4-0-21-4 was the best spell of the series so far, and New Zealand still lost. The rest of their attack went for 155 off 15.5 overs, more than nine an over. Smith (1 for 34 in three overs) bowled the 16th and 19th overs, which went for 31 between them, and Duffy conceded 28 in the 18th and 20th.

Henry, who bowled the opening maiden, bowled only two overs (0 for 11). New Zealand also missed chances: Naman was dropped at point on 9 and Phillips let a pull from Tilak through his hands for four in the 19th over. And because they were behind the over rate, they had to bowl the last over with an extra fielder inside the circle.

What comes next

The 3rd T20I is in Wellington at Hnry Stadium on Tuesday, 27 October, at 12:30 PM IST. It will be live on Sony Sports Network and SonyLIV in India. India can win the series there with two games to spare.

India's questions are at the top: Samson has 81 runs in two innings and Vaibhav made 4 on his first T20I chance of the tour, while Ishan Kishan's fitness will decide whether the top three changes again. New Zealand need someone to back up Santner.

Follow the 3rd T20I live on TryBall: toss, playing XIs, live score and ball-by-ball commentary.