India’s bowling coach Paras Mhambrey reckons a target of around 120-130 would have been really challenging for them in the second T20I against New Zealand at Lucknow on Sunday. India was able to restrict the Kiwis to 99-8 after Mitchell Santner won the toss and decided to bat first.

However, the Indian batters also failed to score briskly and struggled as the pitch was difficult to bat on. In the end, India was able to get over the line only just, by six wickets.

Suryakumar Yadav was top-scored for the home team with 26 runs from 31 balls and thus he was awarded the Player of the Match. In fact, India could only hit eight fours in their innings and it wasn’t a typical T20I pitch as run-making was a difficult task.

“When we saw the wicket, we realized it was on the drier side. There was a little grass covering on the middle, but there was none on both ends. When we came yesterday, it looked like it would turn and we realized it would be challenging,” Paras Mhambrey said in the post-match press conference.

Mhambrey feels the bowlers did well to keep the opposition under 100 and it was a gettable target.

(On the pitch) “The curator is the right person to answer that question. But definitely we knew it would be a big challenge and luckily we controlled the game. Anything in the range of 120-130 would have been really challenging. We did well to restrict them to 99 and it was an achievable target,” he added.

On the other hand, Indian skipper Hardik Pandya was critical of the pitch which was offered. Pandya stated that the curators need to prepare better pitches for T20I cricket.

“I always believed we would finish the game. It went quite deep, but that is how it is. It is important to not panic. Rather than taking risks, we rotated the strike. Having said that, this is a shocker of a pitch. We need to make sure we have better pitches. Even 120 would have been a winning total here,” he said in the post-match presentation.

The decider of the series will be played at Ahmedabad on Wednesday.