NZ vs IND 2020: Men in Blue win another Super Over against the Kiwis; take 4-0 lead in the series
If there’s anything that the New Zealand cricket team have grown to detest collectively over the past year, its surely the concept of a Super Over.
As Virat Kohli smashed a boundary on the penultimate ball of the Super Over in Wellington to give India an unprecedented 4-0 lead in the T20I series, you couldn’t help but feel for the Kiwis – even though this was a mess of their own making.
After winning the toss earlier on in the day, Tim Southee, the stand-in skipper for New Zealand on the day, put India in to bat. Sanju Samson, a replacement for Rohit Sharma in the team, opened the Indian innings alongside the imperious KL Rahul.
Samson perished a few balls into his inning, and a similar fate followed skipper Kohli, who was dismissed after Mitchell Santner – who was absolutely sensational in the field – took an acrobatic catch to send the 31-year-old back to the pavilion.
Despite the early setbacks, Rahul prodded on and continued his rich vein of form, scoring a crucial 39-run knock to lay the foundations of the Indian innings. However, the Kings XI Punjab star couldn’t find any support on the other end, as his compatriots succumbed to the Kiwi spinners at regular intervals. Rahul was sent packing in the ninth over by Ish Sodhi, and India found themselves in a very precarious position, having scored 75 runs and lost four wickets by that point.
A clinical and mature half-century from Manish Pandey powered the side to a respectable total of 165, and the bowlers had a decent enough total to defend.
Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Martin Guptill early on, but his opening partner Colin Munro went hell for leather, dispatching the Indian bowlers, especially the spinners, all over the park. His efforts were complemented by Tim Seifert at the other hand, who adopted a similar approach, and it looked as though the Indian team would require something really special to stop New Zealand from crossing the finish line comfortably.
The need of the hour was a moment of magic and Kohli stepped up to effect one of the best run-outs we’ve seen in recent years to get rid of Munro. Tom Bruce’s wicket followed immediately and it looked as though the Kiwis were in a spot of bother before Ross Taylor and Seifert launched an offensive and made the equation title heavily in the hosts’ favour.
Shardul Thakur stepped up to defend seven runs in the last over and just like the previous game, New Zealand wilted under pressure, losing four wickets in six balls and ended up with the same score as India.
Seifert stepped out to bat in the Super Over and got a couple of lifelines before finally perishing to Bumrah, after which Munro scored a four on the fifth ball and took a single off the last ball to hand India a target of 14 runs from their six balls.
Rahul and Kohli were the two batsmen who took to the crease for India in the Super Over, with the former scoring a six and a four off the first two balls that Southee bowled, before being dismissed on the third delivery. However, Kohli, as he has done so often, held his nerve and ensured that his side crossed the finish line.
As far as nerve-wracking encounters go, we’ve got a second one in as many games in this series. If this is a precursor for what’s going to come in the fifth and final game, we’re set for a blockbuster end to what has been a gripping series that has been highlighted by the hosts’ inability to pull through in crunch situations, and the visitors’ reluctance to give up even when the odds are heavily stacked against them