William Gilbert Grace, the father of cricket history played a vital role in the development of cricket which is now a well-known sport across the globe. This game has encountered many troubling moments when one’s team loses or when the wickets don’t fall and partnership builds up.
Whether one team loses with still runs left to score on board or the other wins easily with still wickets in hand none of them is more thrilling to watch except when both the teams are exceptional on the field and end up scoring equal runs with a tie. In such cases both playing teams get 6 balls with 3 deciding batsmen to play their innings and the team which scores more runs in these 6 deliveries securing their wickets wins the super over.
If again there is a tie-in super over, the team scoring runs with more boundaries wins the match. The super over scheme was first used in a T20 cricket match on 26 December 2008 where West Indies secured 25 runs for just one wicket given whereas New Zealand gave up with just scoring 15 runs and losing both their wickets ending up being the losing team.
Here are some of the most thrilling super overs in cricket history.
Let’s pay a look at how they have managed to attract the viewers.
Australia vs Pakistan (T20 2012)
Pakistan being the no.3 in ICC T20 rankings took over Australia in a T20 match at Dubai International Stadium in 2012 scoring 151 runs with 4 wickets ceased. On the other hand, Australia also ended up making just 151/8 in their innings which led to equal scores for both the team, and then a winner was to be decided.
Super over was then conducted, first came Shane Watson and Warner batting for the Australian cricket team and managed to score a total of 12 runs. Then came Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq who easily defended the total and accomplished victory for Pakistan within five balls.
This game turned out to be very thrilling for the fans and was very fun watching.
England vs New Zealand (World Cup 2019)
The most notable and unforgettable super over was in the world cup 2019 final when the two outstanding teams England and New Zealand faced each other for the trophy. Henry Nicolls being the top scorer for New Zealand scored the most runs- 55 runs off his 77 deliveries and the Kiwis ended up putting 241 runs on board with 8 wickets given in 50 overs.
England team lost early wickets and it seemed back-breaking for the men in blue to accomplish even 241 runs. However, Ben Stokes played startling innings with 84 not out and assisted his team competently by putting the same 241 scores and bestowing a tied match.
Once again Jos Buttler alongside Stokes set up a target of 15 runs in the super over without losing a wicket and then it was up to New Zealand’s batsman to manage a strategy for defending this target yet Jimmy Neesham despite his effort couldn’t take 2 runs in the last ball and again the world cup final was a tie match. Now, the winning team was decided by the number of boundaries scored, and the home team was declared champion with 26 boundaries compared to New Zealand’s 17 only.
Guyana Amazon Warriors vs Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel (CPL 2015)
The first-ever super over in cricket history with six balls maiden was in a Caribbean Premier League group stage match between Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinidad & Tobago red steel in which the two teams scored 118 runs off 20 overs.
The Kolkata Knight Riders off-side spin bowler Sunil Narine bowled a smashing maiden over to the opponent Trinidad batsmen who couldn’t manage to chalk up 12 runs in the super over and hence lost the match to the warriors.
The West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine hard to believe but played a luxurious inning and became the only player to bowl the first super maiden over and was first-class that day taking hold of the crowd and leading his team to win.
Rajasthan Royals VS Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL 2009)
Indian premier league founded in 2007 encountered its first super over in 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa. The match was between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders in which Kolkata won the toss and elected to field first. Yusuf Pathan scored 55 runs for the Royal team and succored his team in putting up 150/6 on board with a run rate of 7.50.
Although it didn’t seem to be a massive total the Knight Riders hardly coped up scoring the same runs due to efforts put forth by Chris Gayle and Sourav Ganguly adding up 41 and 46 runs off 33 and 30 deliveries respectively.
Once more the tied matches led to super over which further extended the game. Chris Gayle again with the bat tremendously played great shots and racked up 15 runs in six balls for the Kolkata Knight Riders but who knew such runs scored wouldn’t be adequate for the Royal team.
Again Yusuf Pathan put over the big show and in the subsequent super over conceded 18 runs with just 4 balls and engineered the man of the match title. Subsequently, the match ended with RR winning the first super over game in IPL history.
Chennai Super Kings Vs Punjab Kings (IPL 2010)
In the following year, a new one over eliminator was played between CSK and KIXP on March 21, 2010, the (16th IPL match) Kings XI Punjab batting first under the captaincy of Kumar Sangakkara and his batting line up including famed up Yuvraj Singh bagged up 136 runs with 8 wickets lost.
Chennai Super Kings started their innings energetically with the opening of Parthiv Patel and Matthew Hayden scoring 57 and 33 runs for 58 and 28 balls each but later they kept on losing wickets and finally ended up giving the bowling team a chance to bring on the action with the bat on the field once again in form of super over as they were unable of score 10 runs in the last six balls and scored just 9 runs out of it ending up with a tie.
The Chennai Super Kings won the toss and batted up first in the super over with Suresh Raina scoring 10 runs in 1 over prescribed. Then came the Punjab Kings and easily with the batting lineup of the pre-eminent Mahela Jayawardene and Yuvraj Singh overcame the targeted runs directing their team to one of the most thrilling super overs wins in IPL cricket history.
Lahore Qalandars Vs Karachi Kings (PSL 2018)
The Pakistan Super League 2018 was held in UAE with the 24th Match of the event being held in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on March 11, 2018, between the two rivals Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings.
Lahore Qalandars won the toss and elected to field first with Sohail Khan dismissing three batsmen in his four-over spell and giving away 34 runs followed by Yasir Shah who managed to take only one wicket in three overs. Karachi Kings put over 163/5 in their 20 overs and now came the time for the Qalandars to chase this score.
Starting over with Fakhar Zaman and Anton Devcich at the crease they added up 28 and 24 runs respectively for the Lahore Qalandars and Agha Salman scoring 50 runs off 45 deliveries was chosen the player of the match. With Brendon McCullum, the captain of the Qalandars, and Gulraiz Sadaf playing the last over there seemed to be a bit of confusion as the captain thought they needed 1 run of the last ball but eventually, they needed 2 runs and therefore the teams tied ending up playing a super over.
Returning to the ground the Qalandars gave the Kings a target of 12 runs which seemed trouble-free for them yet failed to achieve it and lost wickets due to a marvelous spell by Sunil Narine who bowled exceptionally well for the Qalandars dragging them to a glorious victory. No doubt this PSL match between these substantial teams was nail-biting for the fans and they constantly got dwelled into it after each ball.
Also, read: Top 10 cricketers with the most man of the match awards
Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (IPL 2013)
In the 6th edition of the Indian Premier League, it again went across one of the best super overs matches in the knockout stages in Hyderabad on 7th April 2013. Royal Challengers Bangalore led by the famous Virat Kohli won the toss and implemented their bat on the field.
However, only efforts put forth by Virat and Moises Henriques made it able for the opponent team to outlook the runs on board. They managed to score 130 runs in 8 wickets which wasn’t a big total yet it became challenging for the Sunrisers.
Hanuma Vihari the man of the match of the Hyderabadi team made 44 runs off 46 deliveries not leading towards obvious victory but giving his team a chance to be back in action. Now came the time to settle the winner.
Kumar Sangakkara sent his best men Cameron White and Thisara Perera who set a score of 20 runs 1 one over for their team- SRH. Virat and the fewer balls more run-scoring Chris Gayle came to the crease but were left short of 7 runs which led to the game dwelling towards the Sunriser’s account.
Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Lions (IPL 2017)
The two top-class teams of the Indian Premier League Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Lions came across each other in the 35th match of IPL on April 29, 2017.
Gujarat Lions decided to bat first and Ishan Kishan scored the most runs for his team and put up a decent total of 153 runs losing 9 wickets due to an excellent spell of bowling by Krunal Pandya who was later the man of the match serving the Mumbai Indians in both the main innings and then in the super over also as the teams ended up scoring the same runs and the match was tied once again in IPL history.
In the super over Mumbai Indians came first on the ground, their captain Rohit Sharma sending his batting unit to set a target for the Gujarat Lions. Keiron Pollard and Buttler with Keiron contributing 10 runs for the team set up a total of 11 runs. Next came up the Lions with Aaron Finch companying Brendon McCullum for chasing down the total but due to a superlative turnover by Jasprit Bumrah, they also were left with 5 runs remaining and thus the Mumbai Indians team won the most thrilling super over in cricket.
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