India vs New Zealand: Top moments from T20I series; Suryakumar Yadav, Tim Southee make headlines

Napier, Nov 22: The T20I series between India and New Zealand ended in the former's favour but the third and final match, played in Napier, witnessed a rare tie after the play was stopped due to rain on Tuesday (November 22).

A washed-out game in Wellington kicked off the series while rain played spoilsport in the final T20I again in Napier, but in between, we had some riveting action in the series between New Zealand and India, including a hundred from the No.1 ranked T20I batter in the ICC T20I rankings for batters i.e. Suryakumar Yadav.

SKY - who failed to leave a mark in the final T20I - was named the player of the series for amassing 124 runs in two innings.

The series may have escaped headlines due to rain interruptions, but it would probably be looked back upon a while from now. Here's a look at the top moments from the series:

The hit-wicket sequence

Hardik Pandya was out hit-wicket off the final ball of the innings against England in the T20 World Cup semi-final contest in Adelaide that India went on to lose by 10 wickets.

In a rare sequence, in the first completed match following it (the first T20I was abandoned), Shreyas Iyer was out hit-wicket trying to nudge one off the back foot off the bowling of Lockie Ferguson in the second T20I in Mount Maunganui.

Tim Southee's hat-trick

Tim Southee's hat-trick, his second in T20Is, might not have saved New Zealand many runs given that it came in the last over, but kept the centurion Suryakumar Yadav off strike in the entire final over.

Southee created a record of his own, becoming the only bowler after Lasith Malinga to record more than one hat-trick in men's T20Is. Concy Aweko, an off-spinner from Uganda, has accomplished the same in women's T20Is.

Surya continues to shine bright

Before the start of this T20I series, Suryakumar Yadav had already owned the year 2022 with his 360-degree hits and explosive knocks in the shortest format. Having garnered the attention of the cricketing world with his sensational performances in the T20 World Cup, the sky was the limit for the Mumbaikar Down Under.

And against New Zealand, Suryakumar started from where he left in Australia and went on slamming his second T20I century in the calendar year. The 33-year-old batter again put everyone in awe with his all-round hitting skills.

The tied DLS par score

The third T20I in Napier was washed out with India on 75/4 after 9 overs while in pursuit of 161 to win. The relentless rain forced DLS to come into play, but there still was no winner with the scores level on DLS.

There have been two other instances of tied T20Is with the scores level on DLS: Netherlands' tie with Malaysia in 2021 in the Nepal T20I tri-series and Gibraltar's tie with Malta, also in 2021, during a bilateral series.

The more famous incident, of course, came in another format in the 2003 Cricket World Cup where hosts South Africa were eliminated from the tournament after they miscalculated the DLS par score and ended up levelling the score instead of taking an extra run.