A three day practice match was organized between team India and NZXI from Feb 14-16,2020 at seddon park, Hamilton. India won the toss and elected to bat first. New opening pair of prithvi Shaw and mayank aggarwal opened for Indian innings but failed to give a start as Shaw fell for a duck at the fourth ball of the very first over of Pacer Scott kuggeleign. Then mayank aggarwal too followed him , by caught back to the keeper cleaver by the same bowler kuggeleign, just at a mere score of 1. Then on the very next ball shubhman Gill was dismissed for a golden duck and India was reeling at a forgettable scoreboard of 5/3.

Then came the experienced player ajinkya rahane, who when played last against this nation back in 2016, at home, scored a remarkable 188. With him at the crease was another experienced player and the backbone of the Indian batting line up, the stiffy cheteshwar pujara. Both hung on for a while at the middle and started playing their shots. But after some time, just 9 overs only, rahane too departed at a score of 18 from 30 balls, after hitting a one single boundary. India looked to bounce back this time as they were in danger of being bowled out under 100! But this was never been going to happen as on the crease arrived the new batting sensation, who had scored a good ton against windies last year to help India a comfortable 2-0 series win , Hanuma Vihari. Both pujara and Vihari started to play their innings and slowly and steadily built up a partnership which could be a match Turner for NZ. Vihari was playing much quicker than pujara and so reached his 50 first , soon pujara too completed his landmark and both were looking well set and difficulties were now arising for New Zealand bowlers as this partnership had already crossed 150! Then suddenly on the second ball of 72nd over pujara was dismissed by Pacer Jake Gibson , just 7 short if his hundred. But he played remarkably well and helped India to recover by stiching a 195 run stand with Vihari and stayed at crease for nearly sixty overs. Then pant came and went too quickly after hitting a boundary, for 7. Then just after two balls Ashwin followed him for a duck. Then Saha , the keeper of Indian team was dismissed for a duck too. Then after reaching his 100 , Vihari too returned to the pavilion by retiring out but had played a superior innings to save the Indian team. His knock contained three sixes and ten fours. Soon the partnership of remaining batsmen jadeja and Umesh yadav lasted for a bit. Umesh hit two boundaries, while jadeja pulled off one over the covers but soon was dismissed for 8. And the Indian innings ended on a total of 263 in 78.5 overs.

Then started the second innings of new Zealand with two inexperienced and new openers , will young and rachin ravindra , who had represented new Zealand in 2018 U-19 CWC. The innings started with the bowling of bumrah and guess what! In the third over only he got the wicket of young , at a score of just 2. Then came Tim siefert who hung on with rachin at the crease for a while and too hit a boundary to shami but in the tenth over he was dismissed by him only at a score of 9. NZ was 36/2 with most of the run contribution from rachin , who had got some boundaries for the team . Then came with him fin Allen and both started to play their shots and continued to move the scoreboard ahead untill rachin was caught back by pant , off Umesh at a score of 34 and new Zealand was 70/3 now. Soon after hitting some boundaries Allen too was dismissed by bumrah, when his wonderful inswinging dilevery made his stumps rattled. NZ was now 82/4.

Then came on the crease Henry Cooper and Tom Bruce and stiched a good 51 run stand for the fifth wicket , before Bruce was dismissed for 31. He strucked four boundaries in his 34 ball knock. Then came neesham and added 22 runs for the sixth wicket , before Cooper was sent to pavilion at 40. Soon after adding six runs with captain Daryl Mitchell, neesham too got out at 1. And NZ scoreboard read 161/7. Then with captain Mitchell , came wicket keeper cleaver and both spent a good time at the crease with Mitchell playing his shots and cleaver defending. Soon new Zealand too reached 200 but then after Mitchell was dismissed for 32. Then after a bit cleaver too got out at 13 and NZ was just one wicket away from being bowled out. Then kuggeleign and ish sodhi again delayed the fall of the last wicket and added 22 runs by playing some shots. Then finally came the last wicket of sodhi, when Ashwin caught him out by pujara at 14 and NZ finished at 235/10 , trailing still by 28 runs.

India having the advantage of those 28 runs and only 7 overs left on the second day, now batted like the players used to do in t20 format. Shaw and mayank played brilliantly and finished the day with India leading by 87 runs now. The scoreboard read 59/0 in 7 overs and Shaw on 35 off 25 with five boundaries and a maximum, with aggarwal at 23 off 17 with three boundaries and a maximum too under his name.

The last day started and just some 13 runs were added more, prithvi Shaw was bowled out by captain Daryl Mitchell on 39. Then after a bit shubhman Gill too lost his plot and went to pavilion just at 8. India were 82/2 now. Then came pant , who was promoted top the order and with mayank added beautiful runs in no time. Mayank soon reached his 50 and pant after him , with more than run a ball which had some fours and sixes . Soon after pant was dismissed by Mitchell at well made 70 off 65 balls and a partnership of 134 in less than 23 overs with mayank. Soon mayank too got retired out at a well played 81 off 99 , containing 3 sixes and 10 fours. Then Saha and Ashwin added some runs and the match was drawn in the end with India at 252/4 in just 48 overs with a gobbling run rate of 5.25! And some quick innings from Shaw, pant, mayank and Saha who helped to save India from loosing and made strong hopes to perform much better in the upcoming two match test series against NZ from 21st February..