Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma overshadows Kane Williamson's heroics in a breathless encounter at Seddon Park

Wow!! Just Wow! Is there a better love story than New Zealand and Super Over? Somehow they managed to tie the game even from the winning positions and then lose it off the last ball. They needed 2 runs to win off four balls and then Kane Williamson gets out and all goes wrong for the Kiwis.

Then comes the super over and the captain Kane once again makes sure that he got enough runs for his team. He smacks 11 runs off Jasprit Bumrah even as Martin Guptill connects one to set the 18-run target in front of India. Ok now surely, New Zealand in winning. Tim Southee is entursted to do the job and he does well until the fourth delivery.

India need 10 runs off the last two balls with Rohit Sharma. New Zealand have definitely got this one. They aren’t losing another super over. But wait! There is still another twist. Southee, somehow, misses his length on both the occasions and India’s hitman hits sixes to take India home and also seal the series with two matches to go.

There was so much action since the final over of New Zealand’s innings that many forgot Kane Williamson’s heroic and a fluent knock of 95. Rather he scored more than 100 runs for his team and once again ended up on the losing side.

As far as the match is concerned, the chase of 180 runs for New Zealand began superbly with Martin Guptill going all guns blazing. But his partner Colin Munro struggled to put bat to ball. The openers stitched 47 runs together before Shardul Thakur struck to remove the dangerous Guptill. Soon Munro followed him after scoring a painstaking 14. To tackle Ravindra Jadeja, the Kiwis promoted Mitchell Santner to number four but even that move didn’t work for the home side.

However, Kane Williamson was playing special innings at the other end. He middled the ball from the word go and it seemed as if he was on the mission to keep his team alive in the series. Colin de Grandhomme struggled as well but stayed in the middle somehow to accompany his skipper during the 49-run stand. Williamson even took on India’s best bowler Jasprit Bumrah to bring the equation down to 31 runs from the last three overs.

It came down to 20 off two and then nine runs off the last over in the end with New Zealand being the outright favourites. Williamson was on 95 going into the final over but Ross Taylor was on strike. Mohammed Shami was entrusted to do the job and Taylor smacked the very first ball for a six which almost ensured the home team a victory.

However, the final twist was still left. Taylor took a single off the second ball and then Shami began to bowl his best of the day. He first sent back Kane Williamson and then bowled a dot ball to make it 2 off as many deliveries. He bowled a similar kind of delivery (short of a length) to Seifert again who missed but the batsmen ran a bye. The equation came down to a run off the last delivery.

But, say it New Zealand’s bad luck or Shami’s good luck, Taylor played on the final ball of the innings on to his stumps to tie the match. It was the full-length delivery from the bowler as Taylor looked to swing hard to see his stumps shattered.

Rohit Sharma’s half-century propels India to 179

Earlier, India got off to an exceptional start after being invited to bat first. Rohit Sharma finally found his groove on the tour and he literally smashed the bowlers at will. He took a special liking to Hamish Bennett scoring 27 runs off his single over. The Indian opener also got to his half-century off just 23 balls while also completing 10000 runs as an opener in international cricket.

KL Rahul played second fiddle to his partner today as the duo added 89 runs in just nine overs of the innings. Colin de Grandhomme struck the first blow with the ball as he dismissed Rahul even as Bennett got Rohit in the 11th over. Shivam Dube’s promotion to number three didn’t work this time and his wicket left India struggling at 96/3 after 11 overs.

Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then rebuilt the innings and also added 46 runs for the fourth wicket. The latter couldn’t do much with the bat scoring just 17 runs but the Indian skipper churned out 38 runs off just 27 balls and once again looked in his elements. Ravindra Jadeja and Manish Pandey also played a crucial role in propelling the team to 179/5 after 20 overs.

But after almost losing the game in the final over, India made a stunning comeback, not once but twice, to win the match in the super over courtesy those two sixes from Rohit Sharma and sealed the series.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: