India vs New Zealand, 4th T20I, New Zealand tour of India, 2026 - Commentary

After getting beaten comprehensively in the first three matches, New Zealand managed to bring out their A-game today. They posted their highest total of the series with notable contributions coming from Seifert, Conway and Mitchell. With the ball, all the five frontline bowlers were amongst the wickets despite dew playing a role. India were a batter short and SKY used just five bowlers today. There's one more game left in the series - final match for both teams before the World Cup. Tune in on Saturday (31st January) for the fifth and the final T20I. Until then, goodbye.

Tim Seifert | Player of the Match: (On the boundaries off top-edge at the start of his innings) Sometimes you get a bit lucky early on and yeah sometimes the nature of the game, but the intent that we wanted to put on the bowlers early, sometimes you get a couple of top-edges and they go for boundary early. Look, he (Bumrah) got me with a beauty last game, so sometimes you've got to tip your hat, but you've just got to make sure that you look to play straight in the right line and then once you get that first ball, I reckon with him, then it's a bit easier. (Bat differently today?) I wouldn't say a huge amount, to be honest. Sometimes you get some and others you don't. And that's the nature of T20 cricket, but the intent and putting pressure on the bowlers, that's the main thing that we want to do. No matter where we play, the next game and the World Cup, every wicket's going to be a bit different. So being able to adapt, but being true to yourself and putting pressure on the bowlers. I think if we look at the wickets, the pitches are going to be anything like this series, they're going to be high-scoring. So you've just got to keep that intent up.

Mitchell Santner | NZ captain: It was nice. Obviously, the way we started in the powerplay was kind of what India have been doing to us a little bit. And then to get to a decent score, but we knew that at least 200 is never safe against India. Especially after the last game, you get 150, you don’t want guys to go back into their shell. We can’t win the other way, which was nice. The way they took on the bowlers in the powerplay was outstanding and set us up for a decent score. There was a little period in the middle where we lost wickets, but I guess with a start like that, and then obviously finished off by Daryl and Foulkes a little bit, which was nice. We’re trying to think what we’re likely to get. Like I said at the start, there’s no better prep than playing India in India for a World Cup. So we’ve got a couple of guys back for the next game, which is nice. But again, it’s about getting our plans right, getting the roles sorted for what we’ve got coming up in the Cup. It looked like it was going to be flat and not spinning. I think it was a little bit tacky at the end, and on the seam it was spinning when you bowled slow. So I guess I don’t need a second invitation to bowl slow either. I think partnerships throughout, obviously wickets at the start are crucial, and it makes our job as spinners a little bit easier in the middle.

Suryakumar Yadav | India captain: I feel we purposely played six batters today. We wanted to have five perfect bowlers and wanted to challenge ourselves. Like for example, if we're chasing 200 or 180, and we wanted to see if we were two down or three down, how does it look. But then it's fine at the end of the day. And we wanted to play all the players who are part of the World Cup squad. Otherwise, we would have played other ones. (On opting to bat second) We've been batting really well when we've batted first. So I wanted the guys to take that responsibility if we're chasing 180 or 200, and two wickets or three wickets are down and see how we bat. So it's a good challenge. Hopefully if we get an opportunity again in the next game, we might chase again. But at the end of the day, good learning. With the heavy dew, I think one or two partnerships here and there, like the way Dube batted, one batter with him would have made a lot of difference at the end of the game. We lost by 50 runs but it's okay. As I said, one or two partnerships like this in a run-chase like this might make a difference.

Biggest defeat for India at home by runs
51 runs SA Mullanpur 2025
50 runs NZ Vizag 2026 *
49 runs SA Indore 2022
47 runs NZ Nagpur 2016
40 runs NZ Rajkot 2017

Successfully defending a target vs India in India in T20Is
New Zealand: Five times
All other sides combined: Five times (SA X 2, SL X 2 & Eng X 1)

Santner – Sodhi pair in NZ wins in India defending a target
Chennai, 2012: DNP
Nagpur, 2016: 7/29 in 8 overs
Rajkot, 2017: 2/56 in 8 overs
Ranchi, 2023: 3/41 in 7 overs
Vizag, 2026: 5/72 in 8 overs

This is New Zealand’s first win in a T20I against either of India, Australia, or England across 13 games since September 2023.

Matt Henry: I think obviously coming here and playing a very good side, to bounce back and continue the good stuff that we’ve been doing. It’s easy after a couple of losses like that to go searching, but I think that shows a lot about the character of this group, to keep competing. That’s what we kind of hang our hat on. I think the key is assessing conditions. Obviously, we’ve played on three really good surfaces lately, small grounds and here was no different. Very, very wet conditions as well. So I think for us, it’s actually just about keeping fighting. You’re going to have overs where you can get taken for runs, but as long as you keep believing that you can change it by taking wickets, that’s what stems the flow of runs. And that’s what we’ve been able to do. So it was really pleasing to watch the guys go about it tonight. It’s good to get some overs under the belt. It’s not nice when you’re sitting on the side, so it’s great to be back.

17:00 GMT, 22:30 IST: Convincing win for New Zealand. Despite posting 215, it seemed like they were a few runs short as their openers had set a strong foundation with a century stand. Their bowlers, however, were on the money from the word go. Henry struck first ball by removing Abhishek Sharma and Duffy took a sharp return catch to dismiss SKY. Samson, after flopping in the first three matches, got a start and he was joined by Rinku who was promoted to No. 4. The duo added 46 runs for the 3rd wicket. Santner broke the partnership by castling Samson and then deceived Hardik in the flight. When Rinku was trapped lbw by Foulkes, India were tottering at 82/5. Dube, who got off the mark with a monstrous six, played a blinder. The left-hander single-handedly kept his team in the hunt by smashing a 15-ball fifty. He hit 7 sixes and 3 fours but his innings came to an anti-climactic end as he was run-out at the non-striker's end (off bowler's deflection). With that, India's hopes extinguished and they succumbed to a 50-run defeat.

Jacob Duffy to Kuldeep Yadav, THATS OUT!! Caught!!