New Zealand's curse in the Super Over continues, but why?

“Super overs haven’t been too successful for us” – Kane Williamson after losing their fifth consecutive super over on the 29th of January, 2020. New Zealand was up against India in the third T20I of the out of which they had already lost the first two. It was a must-win game for the Kiwis to stay alive in the series and just like the World Cup final, they were close enough but couldn’t cross the line. If you are a New Zealand cricket fan, then your last 12 months have been heart-breaking.

In the last year or so, the Black Caps have lost three games in Super Overs out of which two came against the World Cup winners – England. New Zealand has an awful record in Super Overs (6 T20Is and 1 ODI) as they have won only 1 out of the 7, they have played. It seems as if New Zealand just can’t do it in the Super Over. It all started way back in 2008 when they lost to the West Indians in Auckland.

The T20 World Cup in 2012 saw two instances, both comprising of the New Zealand team and they couldn’t win. The next one came in the ODI game which the Kiwi fans want to forget but can’t. Everything happened in that game, it went so far that recently the ICC changed the rule of the boundary count. To be honest, they didn’t lose that Super Over.

New Zealnd lost to the rules, not to England

They lost to the rule which has been changed now. After the famous World Cup final, there was déjà vu for all the England-New Zealand fans as the decider of a five-match T20I series went into another Super Over.

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The only one which hasn’t been mentioned is the one which they won against their arch-rivals Australia in 2010.

Tim Southee has got it wrong on four out of the five occasions

The one thing common in all these Super Overs is Tim Southee. Of sev Super Overs, Southee has bowled 5 and he has got it wrong 4 times. Tim Southee would have remembered the game against West Indies in 2012 when he failed to defend the same number of runs. When 10 runs were needed off two balls, New Zealand was in the box seat but it was Rohit Sharma’s twin sixes which sealed the deal. With all due respect, Tim Southee is a fine Test bowler and good enough limited-overs bowler but he is not a great death bowler and who would know better than the RCB fans and Virat Kohli. Is the tall fast bowler the only man responsible for these losses in the Super Overs?

Just like one player can’t win you a game, similarly, one player can’t end your team on the losing side. Many other factors haven’t gone their way, sometimes by luck (2019 WC Final) and sometimes by their own mistakes. Coming back to this game, it should never have gone to the Super Over. The Black Caps needed 2 off 4 balls with their captain batting on 95 and still, they couldn’t score those two runs. Go back to the first ball of India’s batting in the Super Over and there was no way Rohit Sharma should have been batting there for the last two balls. Tim Seifert their wicket-keeper missed the simplest of takes which resulted in two runs and Sharma was still at the crease whose twin sixes cost them the game. New Zealand crumbled at the crunch moment. They will agree that somewhere the pressure got to them. It comes as a surprise to see a team that is being led by one of the calmest people in the sport fails to absorb the pressure.

You have to feel for the New Zealand skipper!

On the other hand, you have to give a salute to Kane Williamson. He is just at a different level. Not only with his batting, but the way he handles the situation is just beautiful to watch. Even with the bat, he showed his class in the game and then in the Super Over he showed everyone there is still space for timing and technique against a top-quality death bowler. Virat Kohli, had the same thoughts, as he said,

“They deserved to win the game after the way Kane batted.”

You might be the biggest Indian cricket fan but still, you have to feel for that guy. Eight months earlier, he somehow accepted the closest possible defeat in a World Cup final and now after playing a fabulous knock ends up on the wrong side of the result.

New Zealand will be disappointed that they have lost most of their Super Overs but as they say, some matches are made in heaven and with the others, you try whatever you want but they just won’t work! New Zealand and Super Overs fall in that category. At the moment, it has another page in its never-ending sad story featuring tied games.