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India’s hopes at the Men’s T20 World Cup are hanging by a thread after New Zealand inflicted a second successive miserable defeat on the pre-tournament favourites.

Put into bat, they lacked intent and crawled to 110-7, only hitting eight fours and two sixes to all but silence an Indian-dominated crowd.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja top-scored with an unbeaten 26 from 19 balls, while left-armer Trent Boult took 3-20 and spinner Ish Sodhi 2-17 for New Zealand.

Jasprit Bumrah removed Martin Guptill for 20 but Daryl Mitchell, who made 49 off 35 balls, shared 72 with Kane Williamson to drag the Black Caps within touching distance of victory before he holed out to long-on.

Williamson finished 33 not out as New Zealand picked up their first win and severely dented the hopes of star-studded India.

Pakistan lead Group 2 with three wins from three games, while Afghanistan have four points and New Zealand and Namibia both have two points. India and Scotland are pointless.

India will likely need to win all three of their remaining matches, against Afghanistan on Wednesday, Scotland on Friday and Namibia on November 8 – and turn around a huge net run-rate swing alongside other results going their way – to stand any chance of progressing.

“Old-school” India fail to make grade with bat

India have an embarrassment of riches and power when it comes to batting and that is why they were labelled as favourites pre-tournament by England captain Eoin Morgan.

Yet they posted a below-par score against Pakistan and this was another shockingly subdued effort, despite a slow and tricky pitch.

In stark contrast to England’s blistering win over Australia on Saturday, India were happy to block at the start before three really tame dismissals left them 40-3 halfway through the eighth over.

Ishan Kishan was caught on the square-leg boundary, KL Rahul was caught pulling and Rohit Sharma, who was demoted from opener for just the third time in 77 Twenty20 internationals, flat-batted to long-on for 14.

It left Kohli and Rishabh Pant to rebuild, but they were cautious too and happy to just rotate the strike. It resulted in Kohli holing out to long-on off Sodhi for just nine.

Pant and Hardik Pandya curbed their naturally aggressive instinct and India’s lack of intent and strategy perplexed as 71 balls passed without a boundary through the middle overs.

It was only Jadeja, who managed to hit two fours and one six, who showed any positivity and desire to haul India to a competitive total.

Former England all-rounder Ravi Bopara, who was part of the commentary team on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, said India were playing “old-school cricket”

“There was no urgency to score,” he added. “You can’t just hit yourself out of trouble in Dubai – you’ve got to start aggressively and score runs.

“They are playing like they are in India and there looks to be a few nerves, like they are under pressure to perform and of the favourites tag.”

Former IPL batter Abhishek Jhunjhunwala said: “India have always been like that and take the route of caution at the start.

“They need to reassess that approach. It has worked for them in the past, but I’m not sure it is anymore. They need to take the England route and go really big and hard in the first six overs.”

Black Caps produce solid all-round display

New Zealand and Williamson have a habit of getting the better of India and Kohli in recent times. They did so in the semi-final of 50-over World Cup in 2019 and beat them in the World Test Championship final this summer.

Those results should have had little impact on this game, but it felt like the Black Caps thrived on that confidence while India were fragile.

The Kiwis were superb with the ball. They had clearly done their homework and identified weaknesses in the India batters, but they have the skill and mentality to produce ball after ball.

They offered little width, no freebies and their ground fielding was perfect. Adam Milne dropped Rohit at fine leg off his first ball and Sodhi dropped Jadeja off the final ball of the innings, but their display in the field was close to perfection.

Batting was slightly easier for them with dew starting to fall, but that does not excuse India’s efforts – a total of 110 will not win you games at this level.

They were sensible at the start, rotating and putting the bad balls away, before Mitchell showed his aggressive nature to smash four fours and three sixes.

Williamson played his natural game by working the ball around the ground, with his trademark steer to third man particularly rewarding.

With Scotland to follow on Wednesday, Namibia on Friday and Afghanistan next Sunday, New Zealand will believe they have put themselves in the box seat to seal a final-four spot.

More to follow.