T20 WORLD CUP | Ravindra happy to contribute with the ball too

Rachin Ravindra finds form in T20 World Cup, scoring a vital unbeaten 59 as New Zealand advances to the Super Eight.

Rachin Ravindra wasn’t in the best of form coming into the T20 World Cup and if that wasn’t enough he was under the weather too. Somehow, global showpieces seem to bring out the best in him and he has probably run into form for New Zealand as the Super Eight looms.

After enjoying a wonderful run in the 2023 ODI World Cup in the sub-continent, the 26-year-old wasn’t able to reproduce the magic as often as he would have liked in the shortest format but seems to be hitting the right notes again.

The elegant left-handed batter got into the groove in the company of the ultra-aggressive Glenn Phillips as the two helped New Zealand hunt down Canada’s 173 rather comfortably at the MAC Stadium here on Monday.

Reflecting on his fluent 39-ball unbeaten 59, he said, “Yeah, it obviously means a lot. You always want to score runs as a batsman in T20 but I also understand the game is quite fickle and you go through little troughs in places.”

Looking ahead to the Super Eight stage, he said conditions in Colombo would be different and added that “it’s still T20 cricket at the end of the day and the team does well to adapt to whatever surface is put in front of it.”

Ravindra, who has been sending down his left-arm spin a lot more in the tournament, said he liked to bowl as it helped him contribute to the team.