Why was there no Super Over in India vs New Zealand 3rd T20I tie?

The third T20 International match between India and New Zealand ended in a tie through the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method at McLean Park in Napier on Tuesday (November 22).

The fine fifties of Devon Conway (59 off 49) and Glenn Phillips (54 off 33) helped New Zealand set a moderate target of 161 for the visitors.

Indian opener Ishan Kishan started well, but Adam Milne got the better of him in the second over. Then, the New Zealand stand-in skipper Tim Southee further put a dent in India's chase with a couple of dismissals in the subsequent over. He claimed the wickets of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer on successive balls.

India were reduced to 21 for 3 wickets down at the end of three overs before stand-in skipper Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav added 39 runs in 22 balls. Just after the powerplay overs, Suryakumar departed for a 10-ball 13 after looking to whip off Ish Sodhi's ball but found Glenn Phillips at deep mid-wicket.

Just as Sodhi and Mitchell Santner contained runs between 6-9 overs to put India on the backfoot, the rains interrupted the play for the second time in the series. Hardik (30* off 18) and Deepak Hooda (9* off 9) were batting for the Men in Blue before the covers were brought on the field.

Why there was no Super Over even though the match tied via DLS?

According to the DLS requirement, India's score after nine overs should be 75. The visitors were exactly stranded at 75/4 after nine overs before rain played a spoilsport.

To New Zealand's dismay, the match ended in a tie after India leveled the scores on DLS. Had the Hardik Pandya-led side scored more than 75 after nine overs, they would have been declared the winners of the final T20I.

Usually, the norm is to use the Super Over to determine the results when a match ends in a stalemate in the Twenty20 format. However, if the weather conditions do not permit the game to proceed forward, the match will result via DLS (the team batting second should play at least five overs in T20Is).

Since DLS scores were leveled and there was no scope for the match to go ahead due to wet conditions, the match ended in a tie.

This was the third instance of a T20 International game resulting in a tie. Netherlands vs Malaysia (Kirtipur, Nepal, April 2021) and Malta vs Gibraltar (Marsa, Malta, October 2021) are the other two T20I games that finished in a DLS tie.

The Hardik-led side won the three-match series 1-0 after thrashing New Zealand by 65 runs in the second T20I at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. The first game in Wellington was abandoned due to rain.