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I suppose that's 3 times, not 4.

Also, to me it looked like they missed hitting stumps mostly because of [just my guess, don't want to debate on it] -

1. Their choice of bowlers they chose for the super over, who were more likely to miss - a medium pacer, a fast bowler trying to bowl like a slow bowler, which is not natural to him, and a leg-break bowler who will naturally take the ball away from stumps rl:
2. Shoaib Malik, an off-spinner not bowling and to some extent, WK standing far away from stumps not helping their cause.

This is where MSK was smart, in his choice of bowlers - he chose 3 off-spinners who all bring the ball back towards stumps, and with short run-up, it's easier to control the line, meaning possibility of hitting stumps is more. He also had Robin Uthappa bowl, that was a brave decision, but it just worked. clap:

https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/...ticle-94205340

Preparation was the key difference between the two finalists. When this match came down to super over, I believe our bowlers were prepared for this challenge and it showed on the field. Pakistan on the other hand were bemused with this situation.

I have to confess though, there are many occasions where I felt a match was fixed, not by the players, but by the boards or even ICC itself. But this is one match where I find the explanations reasonable.

England vs New Zealand 2nd Test at Wellington is poised beautifully. Despite a low score of 209 all out, New Zealand were asked to follow on and got 483 in their second inning!
England are 48/1, needing another 210 runs for a win.

After that brilliant fight by Williamson and Blundell what a school boy error by Bracewell. And his dad is a cricket coach who used to stress on proper running between the wickets. Pitch still looks good to Bat so 210 shouldn't be difficult for England unless Bazball fails for a change.

England need seven runs, NZ need that last wicket. Can Leach and Anderson manage this?

Wow, what a win for New Zealand, by just 1 run. Test cricket at its thrilling best clap:

What a win for NZ.
They desperately needed it after all the drubbing England did to them.

Harry brook run out was the turning point. And he is Rightly player of the series. What a player. Reminds me so much of KP. Would love to see him play in India end of the year.

This has to be the most memorable test match in recent times. One for the ages.

Whoa. What a game, what a finish. A tie would have been the fairest result, but this world ain't fair.

I was rooting for England to win. Reason: If they lose a few more of these close matches in quick succession- there would be pressure on them, Baz to go back to conventional, orthodox methods. And I want them to continue their firebrand style of playing test cricket. It's so riveting and refreshing.

Interesting take by Jarrod Kimber on the bazball approach.

https://youtu.be/Tr3jxAw1mAs

For the TL;DR folks: Jarrod suggests, citing a few examples, that England have played well under Ben-Baz, but have had incredible luck too & that Bazball might have looked very different if the rub of green didn't go England's way.

I don't think their approach is going to change until Baz & Ben are in charge. Both of them have continuously talked about losing the fear of failure & that their gung ho approach is going to succeed more than it fails. A loss or few shouldn't faze them.

Isn't any sport a form of entertainment, at least for the one's who are watching??. There is no other purpose in watching sport other than to be entertained. What entertains a person can be different, but the ultimate aim is that. I am not sure anyone watches any sport where they feel bored and not entertained. And while there were match fixing issues cricket is nothing like WWE, which is completely scripted. To believe that the sport that we are seeing is scripted would be an insult to the integrity of the players who sacrificed a lot, worked really hard to reach where they are. Just because there were/are a few bad apples we cannot generalise and cast doubts on integrity of all the players.

Many great players have made silly mistakes under pressure. Messi missed out on a slightly easy chance (by his standards) in 2014 WC finals. The less said about the chance missed by Higuain, who by the way is a good striker who normally would have score 9 times out of 10 from such a chance. Again Messi missed a penalty in Copa finals against Chile.

And I don't know if this is the case with everyone, but personally I am seeing less of cricket after the retirement of the Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag, Ganguly and lakshman, especially the first 3. Along with Kumble, these were the players who formed a major chunk of my late teens to mid 30's. It's as if some part of your cricket journey and enthusiasm also retired along with them. So yes I still follow every match on cricinfo, but job and family means less time watching.

Same with me. I guess each generation gets attached to a particular set of players from their generation and then move on. I have same thing with Tennis.

This is exactly the case with me too. It also didn't help that I moved out of India a few months before Sachin retired. There have since been fewer opportunities to watch live cricket on TV, but then I haven't really bothered either.

KL Rahul dropped finally & Shubhman Gill is in :ZZZ:

Excellent start for Nitin Menon (From the Indian point of view). Missed 2 OUT decisions against Rohit Sharma on Ball 1 and 4 of the test match that Australia chose not to review.

And by the end of the 4th over, Gill has scored more runs than KL would have in both innings combined.

And Rohit goes playing a T20 shot. I wish Gill scores a double and KL retires with it.