The curious case of ‘6’ in the India-New Zealand series

India and New Zealand played one of the most exciting limited overs series over the last few weeks and the hosts prevailed when it mattered the most in both the ODI and T20I series. It was all played in great spirit and there were no controversies on and off the field which was the icing on the cake. The Kiwis once again proved they are well versed with the Indian conditions and fought gamely right until the end of every game.

However, a certain number played its part in the result throughout the series and followed both the teams wherever they travelled over the last two weeks. Both ODI series and T20 International series had a similar pattern the way it panned out.

The visitors surprised the Men in Blue in Mumbai and clinched the one-sided game after which the hosts came back roaringly in Pune in another one-sided affair. But then they were involved in a nail-biting and high-scoring contest in Kanpur which ebbed and flowed throughout the 100 overs. Similarly, in T20Is, India ended their losing streak in Delhi which was the final game of Ashish Nehra’s career. The Kiwis as expected fought back in the contest and defeated Virat Kohli and his men easily only to set up a heart-wrenching thriller in Thiruvananthapuram.

Amazing coincidence

India and New Zealand were involved in one of the best limited overs series of the Indian home season but they didn’t realise that a specific number followed them right through, mostly during the ODI series and also had the final say in the decider on Tuesday. The tour of the Black Caps was comprised of ‘6’ matches, out of which four of them were won by ‘6’ wickets or ‘6’ runs.

Especially, the ODI series was all about ‘6’ as the first couple of games were won by India and New Zealand respectively by 6 wickets and then hosts came out on top in the final match again by 6 runs. Despite the decider being a shortened game of just 8-overs, the result was same as in the final game of ODI matches. India once again won by 6 runs which proves that the number had something to do with this special series. This amazing co-incidence has never happened in the recent times and seldom does these things go unnoticed.

Here are the details:

Total matches played on this tour: 6

First ODI: New Zealand won by 6 wickets

Second ODI: India won by 6 wickets

Third ODI: India won by 6  runs

Third T20I: India won by 6 runs