Tilak Varma once again proved himself the man for a crisis, steering India to a thrilling four-wicket win over New Zealand in the second T20I at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Saturday, a victory that marked India's landmark 300th men's T20I with their 200th win in the format and gave the visitors a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Chasing a stiff target of 181, India were in deep trouble for much of the evening. The top order had faltered, the required rate was climbing, and with five wickets down and 110 runs still needed at the end of the 11th over, one statistical model gave India a win probability of just 5.21 per cent. What followed was one of the great finishes in recent Indian T20I history.
Tilak, batting at No. 6, finished unbeaten on 51 from 26 balls, with six fours and a six, reaching his half-century from just 25 deliveries. His partner in the decisive stand was Nitish Kumar Reddy, who remained 26 not out from 13 balls. Together they put on 69 runs, India's highest partnership for the seventh wicket or lower in T20Is, surpassing the previous best of an unbeaten 63 between Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya, also against New Zealand, in Hamilton in 2019.
The pair's fifty-partnership arrived in just 23 balls, and 31 runs across the 17th and 18th overs transformed the chase. With 11 required from Jacob Duffy's final over, the two ran hard, found the boundary when it mattered, and completed the winning run on the penultimate delivery, sealing a win that had seemed lost for long stretches of the evening.
The numbers behind the victory tell a remarkable story. India's top five contributed just 62 runs collectively, the second-fewest in a successful chase of a 180-plus target in T20Is. Only Luxembourg, whose top five scored 61 in chasing 188 against France in 2023, have won such a chase with less from their top order. India's batters at No. 6 and lower contributed 108 runs, the fourth-most for any T20I chase, a testament to the depth that has become the hallmark of this side.
Earlier in the chase, the innings had repeatedly been checked by New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, whose four wickets for 21 runs accounted for Abhishek Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Naman Dhir. Santner's spell was a masterclass in control and variation, and at one stage it appeared that his bowling alone might be enough to defend a modest total.
Naman Dhir briefly revived the chase with a brisk 31 off 17 balls, but his dismissal at 112 for 6 left India needing 69 from 31 deliveries, with New Zealand firmly in control.
Tilak and Nitish then reduced a dramatic finish to a simple division of roles. Tilak, calm under pressure, punished width and overpitched bowling while keeping the scoreboard moving between boundaries. Nitish supplied immediate intent at the other end, ensuring that the required rate never moved out of sight. Their stand was not a long rebuilding exercise; it was a precisely timed counterattack that converted panic into control.
For Tilak personally, the innings added another chapter to a remarkable record in run chases. His 51 not out was the first fifty by an Indian batting at No. 6 or lower in a successful T20I chase. The previous highest was Washington Sundar's unbeaten 49 against Australia at Hobart last year.
Tilak now has four fifties while batting at No. 5 or lower in twelve T20I chases; all other India batters combined have made four fifties in T20I chases while batting outside of the top four.
More broadly, the Christchurch innings was the 26th time in a T20 match that Tilak has remained unbeaten while his team emerged victorious, the most such unbeaten knocks in men's T20 chases with a 100 per cent win record. Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill are next on that list with 22 each. Only James Vince has remained not out more often than Tilak, with an unbeaten record in 31 chases, though one of those was in a washout.
The tally includes matches from the IPL as well as other T20 encounters, and it underlines a temperament that seems built for the closing stages of a game.
The match itself carried a pleasing symmetry for Indian cricket historians. India's first and 300th T20Is share more than one coincidence. Both were played overseas, both ended in successful chases with one ball remaining, and both featured unbeaten Players of the Match. Dinesh Karthik scored an unbeaten 31 as India reached 127 for 4 against South Africa in 19.5 overs in 2006. Tilak made 51 not out as India reached 181 for 6 against New Zealand on Saturday, two decades later.
New Zealand's total of 180 for 5 had been built despite disciplined Indian bowling. Arshdeep Singh finished as India's leading wicket-taker with two wickets for 33 runs, and the attack restricted the hosts despite Michael Bracewell's brief late hitting. Three powerplay wickets gave the visitors room to absorb the recovery led by Glenn Phillips and Bevon Jacobs, while Arshdeep and Nitish struck late enough to keep the target within reach.
India's victory was achieved without the services of the injured Ishan Kishan, who had been ruled out with a low-grade right adductor strain sustained in the series opener. Kishan's explosive presence at the top of the order is usually central to India's powerplay strategy, and his absence forced a structural reshuffle that saw 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi enter the playing XI at No. 3.
Sooryavanshi endured a tough outing, managing only four runs from eight balls, but the depth of the side ensured that one early setback did not derail the chase.
Santner, for his part, was left to rue dropped catches and misfields that allowed India back into a game New Zealand had controlled for long periods. The dropped catch of Sooryavanshi, when Bevon Jacobs lost sight of the ball under the lights, became a talking point, but it was the failure to defend 46 runs from the final three overs that ultimately cost the hosts.
In a format defined by fine margins, the difference between victory and defeat on Saturday came down to two batters who refused to panic and a bowling attack that, under pressure, could not find the decisive breakthrough.
For India, the win extends a run of success in the shortest format and reinforces the sense that this is a side built for all conditions. The reigning champions have shown, time and again, that they possess not only star power at the top of the order but also finishers capable of rescuing a chase from improbable positions.
Tilak Varma, in particular, has emerged as the embodiment of that depth: a batter who seems to relish the moments when the game appears lost, and who has now made a habit of turning those moments into victories.
The series now moves on with India holding a 2-0 lead, and New Zealand facing the challenge of regrouping after a defeat that will sting precisely because it was so close. For the hosts, the positives are real: Santner's bowling, a competitive total, and a bowling attack that troubled India's top order throughout. But the negatives are equally clear: in a five-match series, letting a game slip from a position of such control can shift momentum in ways that are hard to reverse.
For Tilak, the Christchurch evening will be remembered as another entry in a growing catalogue of chases finished with the bat in his hand and the game in the balance. The statistics, impressive as they are, only partly capture what he brings to this Indian side: composure when others are hurried, clarity when the equation is complicated, and a belief, shared by his partners, that no chase is lost until the final ball is bowled.
On Saturday, that belief was vindicated once again, on the occasion of India's 300th T20I, with one ball to spare.
(Reporting based on Cricinfo and The SportsTak.)