Mitchell Santner pulls of a stunner to dismiss Manish Pandey

It had been raining cats and dogs for the past few days in Thiruvananthapuram. A consistent spell of rain and a soggy outfield threatened to play spoilsport to the decider of the T20 International series between India and New Zealand. However, the rain stopped in the nick of time and the match was eventually scheduled for 8 overs per side. New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first.

From the very first over, it was evident that the pitch wasn’t an easy-going one for the batsmen. It was more so as Mitchell Santner’s very first delivery gripped off the surface and turned to rip past the outside-edge of Rohit Sharma’s bat. Thereafter, India struggled to get themselves going and lost wickets pretty regularly. Virat Kohli looked good during his 6-ball stint. However, he perished to a mistimed pull shot off Ish Sodhi, the catch being pouched by Trent Boult at deep mid-wicket.

The stunner by Santner

Apart from Kohli, Manish Pandey was the other batsman who looked at home while batting. With a boundary and a scorching six, Pandey was all set to give India the finishing kick in the first innings. Nevertheless, he perished to a spectacular effort from Mitchell Santner. In the second ball of the final over of India’s innings from Trent Boult, Pandey attempted to heave one over the long-on fence.

He couldn’t find the middle of the bat, yet the ball went a long way. It was destined to go over the ropes, but Santner dived full-length to his right to grasp the ball. However, on realising that the momentum might take him over the ropes, he parried the ball back to Colin de Grandhomme who completed the formalities of taking the catch. For all the acrobatic effort made by Santner, the scoreboard displayed Boult and Grandhomme’s name, which is somewhat harsh from Santner’s viewpoint.

Here’s the video:

A nail-biting finish

India stumbled during their innings and managed 67 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. During their chase, New Zealand lost Colin Munro and Martin Guptill pretty early to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah respectively. Glenn Phillips smashed a couple across the boundaries to reignite New Zealand’s hope but fell to Kuldeep Yadav.

The Kiwis needed 19 off the last over to turn over India. Colin de Grandhomme smacked one into the stands to bring the equation down to 12 runs off 3 balls. However, Hardik Pandya, bowling his first over of the game, held on his nerves and ensured that India won the game by 6 runs and also the series by 2-1.