It was a 3-match series between India and New Zealand that saw the first game being washed out, the second match being won by India, and the third ended in a tie after DLS intervened.
So India take the series 1-0, but what easily could have been 1-1 had Mitchell Santner not done a misfielding on the last ball of the 9th over of India’s innings in the third T20I that allowed Deepak Hooda to take a single before rain arrives and no more play was possible.
Here is why there was no Super Over despite the match ending in a tie:
India were chasing 161 in Napier on Tuesday and were 75/4 at the 9-over mark – after Santner’s misfield made a run possible for Hooda and India – and the no more play because of rain meant DLS was used to decide the result. The DLS par score for the 9-over mark for India losing 4 wickets was 75 and hence the match concluded as a tie.
Now, in normal situation, a tie would have meant a Super Over. However, because of rain and the damp outfield, there just wasn’t any time left for the match to resume for a shortened game or even a Super Over. Hence, even though the match ended in a tie, there was no Super Over played.
Mohammed Siraj was named the Player of the Match for his brilliant figures of 4/17. Arshdeep Singh also returned with good numbers of 4/37. The pair forced New Zealand to collapse from 130/2 to 160 all out after the 86 (63) partnership between Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips.
Centurion from the second T20I, Suryakumar Yadav, who finished with 124 runs scored at a strike rate of 203 in 2 innings, was named the Player of the Series. This was the last T20I series for India in 2022.
India’s interim skipper Hardik Pandya said: “Would have liked to win the game by playing the full overs, but it is what it is. At some point, I felt attack is the best defence on this wicket. We know the kind of bowling attacks they have, it was very important to get those 10-15 runs extra even though we lost a couple of wickets. A game like this could have given us an opportunity to test some of the players, but having said that, weather is something we cannot control.”
