WELLINGTON: India snatched the fourth Twenty20 International against New Zealand at the Westpac Stadium on Friday after yet another super over was needed to separate the two sides after the scores were tied following the regulation 20 overs.

New Zealand, batting first in the decider, 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 and 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 for eight, 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 for seven 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 with Munro making 64 and Seifert out in the final over for 57.

India, sent into bat first, made 165 for eight 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 six for 88 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 for one after five overs.

But in the sixth over, when Thakur wound back the pace to under 140 kilometres per hour (87mph), 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 threw down the stumps.

Scoreboard

INDIA:

K. Rahul c Santner b Sodhi 39

S. Samson c Santner b Kuggeleijn 8

V. Kohli c Santner b Bennett 11

S. Iyer c Seifert b Sodhi 1

S. Dube c Bruce b Sodhi 12

M. Pandey not out 50

W. Sundar b Santner 0

S. Thakur c Southee b Bennett 20

Y. Chahal c Seifert b Southee 1

N. Saini not out 11

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-3, W-6, NB-1) 12

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 165

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-48, 3-52, 4-75, 5-84, 6-88, 7-131, 8-143

DID NOT BAT: Jasprit Bumrah

BOWLING: Southee 4-0-28-1 (2w); Kuggeleijn 4-0-39-1 (3w, 1nb); Santner 4-0-26-1; Bennett 4-0-41-2 (1w); Sodhi 4-0-26-3

NEW ZEALAND:

M. Guptill c Rahul b Bumrah 4

C. Munro run out 64

T. Seifert run out 57

T. Bruce b Chahal 0

R. Taylor c Iyer b Thakur 24

D. Mitchell c Dube b Thakur 4

M. Santner run out 2

S. Kuggeleijn not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-7, W-3) 10

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 20 overs) 165

FALL OF WKTS: 1-22, 2-96, 3-97, 4-159, 5-163, 6-164 , 7-165

DID NOT BAT: Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee (captain), Hamish Bennett

BOWLING: Thakur 4-0-33-2 (1w), Saini 4-0-29-0 1w), Bumrah 4-0-20-1, Chahal 4-0-38-1 (1w), Sundar 2-0-24-0, Dube 2-0-14-0

RESULT: Match tied, India won super over decider.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Shardul Thakur

SERIES: India lead five-match series 4-0.

UMPIRES: Chris Brown, Shaun Haig (both New Zealand)

TV UMPIRE: Ashley Mehrotra (New Zealand)

MATCH REFEREE: Chris Broad (England)

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020