स्तम्भ Stambh · Udyamnīti
Seventy for Five, and Still Sikandar
India were 70 for 5 in Christchurch, chasing 181. Tilak Varma and Nitish Kumar Reddy finished it with a ball to spare. A masterclass in perseverance, and what anyone building something can take from it.
Nikhil Sharma · उद्यमनीति Udyamnīti · 24 October 2026 · 3 min read
Hārī huī bāzī, jīt meṁ badlī. A lost game, turned into a win.
At Hagley Oval in Christchurch this afternoon India needed 181 to beat New Zealand in the second T20I. After 10.5 overs they were 70 for 5. Mitchell Santner had taken Abhishek Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel inside three overs. The asking rate had climbed past ten. Most people watching had already written the match report in their heads.
India won by four wickets, with one ball to spare. They now lead the series 2–0.
How it turned
Nobody hit their way out of it in one over. It came back in two pieces.
First, Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma put on 42 off 25 balls for the sixth wicket. Dhir made 31 off 17 with three sixes. That stand did not win the match. It kept the match alive, which is a different job and the harder one, because nobody remembers it.
When Santner took Dhir for his fourth wicket, India were 112 for 6 after 14.5 overs and needed 69 from 31 balls. Tilak Varma and Nitish Kumar Reddy got them in 30. Tilak finished 51 not out off 26 balls, with six fours and a six. Reddy made 26 not out off 13 without a single dot ball. India reached 181 for 6 in 19.5 overs.
The stand that kept the match alive did not win it. Without it there was nothing left to win.
Credit where it is due
New Zealand played their part in a very good game. They were 41 for 3 in the sixth over after Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prince Yadav struck early. Glenn Phillips (70 off 43) and Bevon Jacobs (58 off 46) then added 116 for the fourth wicket to take them to 180 for 5. Santner’s 4 for 21 from his four overs was the best spell of the day and nearly won it on its own. Arshdeep finished with 2 for 33. This was not a weak side beaten. It was a strong side out-waited.
What a founder can take from 70 for 5
Every company I have sat with has had its 70 for 5. The launch that flopped, the client who left, the round that did not close. The scoreboard at that point is real. What it does not tell you is how many balls are left.
Three things decided this chase, and all three apply off the field.
Stay in the game before you try to win it. Dhir and Tilak did not try to get 111 in five overs. They got 42 and kept a wicket in hand. In a business that means protecting cash and the core team first, and then going for growth.
Break the target into overs. 69 off 31 sounds impossible. Fourteen an over for five overs is a plan. Founders who split the gap into weekly numbers keep moving. Founders who stare at the annual target freeze.
Trust the person who has done it before. Tilak has finished chases for India. Reddy rotated the strike so that Tilak kept facing. Knowing your finisher and feeding him the strike is how a team turns pressure into a result.
The film had it right in its title. Jo jeeta wohi Sikandar: whoever wins is the champion. The scoreboard at 70 for 5 is not the result. The result is the result.
Well played, Team India. And well fought, New Zealand.
Written in Gurugram on 24 October 2026, an hour after the winning runs.
Source: ball-by-ball scorecard of the second T20I, New Zealand v India, Hagley Oval, Christchurch, 24 October 2026 (Sportradar), and Outlook India’s live coverage for the toss, the line-ups and the result of the first match. Cover composed from a photograph of Tilak Varma by Buchi Babu Sana, March 2026, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
