Nagpur, Mar 16: Title favourites India were suffered a shocking 47-run defeat at the hands of a spirited New Zealand in World Twenty20 opening game at the VCA stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur on March 15.

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The Black Caps bundled Men In Blue out at a paltry 79 in 18.1 overs after being restricted at 126 for seven and thus maintained their 100% win record against the Indians.

It was the fifth such ocassion when MS Dhoni & Co were defeated by the Kiwis in the T20I.

If one talks about reasons for Team India's shambolic defeat, then it was the batting which cost India the match but credit couldn't be taken away from the New Zealand team management and its spinner who kept the Indian guns silent in their own backyard.

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The game at Nagpur was an almost replica of the T20I between India and Sri Lanka at Pune just a month back. Indian batters, back then, failed to judge green pitch and were able to put mere 101 runs on the board. Sri Lankans had won that match by 5-wickets. Not to forget there was no Virat Kohli in the Indian side then.

Here are the reasons for Team India's shock defeat:

Horrendous batting performance from Indians

The famed batting line-up, studded with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni showed poor skills and application against the Kiwi spinners.

Wickets kept perishing from the very first over as the Indians looked unsettled on the turning track. The opening duo of Shikhar-Rohit failed to read the conditions and departed cheaply, thus putting their side into pressure.

The middle-order comprising in-form Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh gifted their wickets via 'soft dismissals' to the New Zealand spinners.

Hitters like Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja continued to disappoint with their bats, thus handing India their second lowest T20 total.

Impressive spin bowling from Kiwis

India's batting department came a cropper against the Kiwi spin trio of Nathan McCullum, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi. Having shocked everybody with their announcement of playing 3 spinners instead of relying over its pace battery, the Black Caps proved their decision was spot on.

Nine of India's 10 wickets fell to the Kiwi spin trio while last man Ashish Nehra was castled by pacer Adam Milne to complete the rout.

Santner captured a stunning 4 for 11, Sodhi grabbed 3 for 18 while McCullum, the senior-most spinner, took 2 for 15.

Super Santner

With impressive figures of 4-0-11-4, young left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner turned out to be the star performer with the ball for New Zealand, recording the best bowling figures by a Kiwi tweaker in India.

The southpaw leggie brought his side in the driver's seat by trapping Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina in his very first over.

Team India's jinx against Kiwis continues

Ever since the start of the game, pressure was on the Indian side which has never registered a win against the Black Caps in the shortest format of the game and add to it the pressure performing under home conditions. It seems, the psychological advantage helped the Kiwis hand Indians an embarrassing defeat.

The home team now proceed to Kolkata to take on arch-foes Pakistan in their second game on March 19. Thus, it will be interesting to see how Indian batsmen perform against the Pakistani pace attack.

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