England’s wicketkeeper Sam Billings took a leaf out of former Indian captain MS Dhoni’s book, as he pulled off a no-look run-out to remove New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.
England and New Zealand locked horns at the Eden Park in the fifth and final T20I to decide the winner of the five-match series. With the game reduced to 11 overs a side due to rain, New Zealand posted 147 runs for England to chase.
In the last ball of the first innings, Tom Curran bowled a scorching yorker to Ross Taylor, who whipped the leather through the backward square leg region and set off for a couple. Since it was the last ball, Taylor pushed his partner James Neesham for the other run.
However, Taylor couldn’t complete the second run. Sam Curran hurled in a strong, but a wayward throw from the deep. Sam Billings collected the leather and flicked it on to the stumps without looking. It’s a technique Dhoni has used plenty of times to disallow batsmen from completing runs.
— Dixit Bhargav (@dixitbhargav09) November 10, 2019
— Kumar Sourav (@AdamDhoni1) November 11, 2019
After New Zealand posted a big total on the board, few would have thought that England could come close to the target, but the Eoin Morgan-led side produced an excellent batting effort to match the hosts’ total. Jonny Bairstow led the show for England with an 18-ball 47 and was well supported by Morgan (17 off 7) and Sam Curran (24 off 11).
England was restricted on 146/7 in 11 overs as the game went into a Super Over. England scored 18 runs off the Super Over and managed to stop New Zealand on eight runs to win the game and claim the series 3-2.
