India squeeze home
CLOSE: SUPER OVER AGAIN NEEDED TO SEPARATE THEM FROM NEW ZEALAND
India snatched the fourth Twenty20 against New Zealand yesterday after yet another super over was needed to separate the two sides when the scores were tied following the regulation 20 overs.
New Zealand, batting first in the decider, had made 13 with Tim Seifert dropped twice before he was eventually dismissed.
In reply, Indian captain Virat Kohli hit the winning runs with a ball to spare.
The third match also ended in a super over with Rohit Sharma hitting sixes off the last two balls to get India home.
“What’s happened in the last two games is unbelievable,” Kohli said.
“It feels good when you are out of the game and then somehow find a way to come back.
“That shows the character of the team.”
The win puts India 4-0 up in the five match series with New Zealand stand-in captain Tim Southee not happy that his side could not wrap the game up in the 20 overs.
“It’s very tough, especially in the position we got ourselves into and then to give them a chance at the end, they’re going to grab it with both hands,” he said.
New Zealand, chasing India’s 165/8, went into their last over only needing seven runs to win and with seven wickets in hand.
However, they were restricted to six runs and lost four wickets to finish 165/7 and set up the super over.
New Zealand had already suffered an earlier setback with talismanic captain Kane Williamson a late scratching having not fully recovered from a shoulder injury suffered while fielding in game three.
It was left to lusty hitting by Colin Munro and Seifert to provide the backbone of their innings.
Munro made 64 and Seifert was out in the final over for 57.
India, sent into bat first, made 165/8 on a flat track at Wellington
stadium with the innings anchored by an unbeaten 50 from Manish Pandey and his partnerships with Thakur and Navdeep Saini.
India were 88/6 in the 12th over before Pandey and Thakur arrested the slide in a 43-run stand with Thakur contributing 20.
Saini, who was not out 11 in his first appearance on tour, put on 22 with Pandey off the last 13 deliveries.
In a slow start to their reply,
New Zealand were 23/1 after five overs before accelerating the pace.
But in the sixth over, when Thakur wound back the pace to under 140km/h, Munro found his timing with a six and two fours to get the scoreboard moving.
In partnership with Seifert they put on 72 off 44 deliveries before Munro was run out in a smart piece of relay fielding involving Thakur and Kohli who eventually threw down the stumps. – AFP