Getty India captain Virat Kohli.
India’s Men in Blue will look to sweep the Black Caps of New Zealand on Sunday, when the sides meet at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui for the fifth T20 of a five-match set in New Zealand.
The match (starts early Sunday morning/late Saturday night at 2 a.m. ET) won’t be on TV in the United States, but anyone in the US can watch New Zealand vs India live on ESPN+:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can then watch New Zealand vs India live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you don’t watch live, the match will also be available on-demand on ESPN+.
New Zealand vs India 5th T20 Preview
The Men in Blue bested the Black Caps in Super Overs in the third and fourth T20 matches. On Wednesday, Rohit Sharma finished off India’s Super Over charge with sixes on the last two balls after New Zealand posted 17 to open the extra period.
Two days later, the Black Caps made 13 in the Super Over, only to watch India’s KL Rahul club 10 off the first two balls from Tim Southee. Men in Blue captain Virat Kohli, needing four off three, went for six off two.
“We couldn’t have asked for more exciting games, we’ve never played Super Overs before and now we’ve won two,” Kohli said, according to ESPNcricinfo. “It shows the character of the team.”
In the third T20, the Black Caps needed just two off the final four balls of regulation to catch India’s 179, only to be held in check by Mohammed Shami. This time around, New Zealand sought seven in the final over to surpass 165. They lost four wickets en route to six against the bowling of Shardul Thakur.
“Since it’d had happened in the last game, we just thought we had to bowl good balls,” India batsman Manish Pandey said, according to ESPNcricinfo. “And if we do that, it’s possible we push it to a Super Over. And then, as the balls went by and we reached the last two balls, it started looking, in fact we were certain, that this would go into a Super Over. We were ready for it in the back of the mind. We have very good bowlers, and Shardul bowled a very good last over.”
The Black Caps have now dropped four Super Overs in the past seven months.
“A Super Over — it’s a bit of luck actually, to be fair,” Black Caps batsman Colin Munro said, according to The New Zealand Herald.
“We’re all sitting in the sheds talking about it and hurting that we’ve let two games slip.”
He added: “We’re all putting in the effort and it’s not like we’re being blown off the park — the only game we probably didn’t step up to our standards was the second game at Eden Park. We’ve been playing some good cricket, India have just been that one or two per cent better than us.
“It’s just batters at those times needing to take better options. And I think we’ll do that by playing more in these types of situations — we’ll learn from it, and come back a bit stronger.”