Opinion Express View on India-Afghanistan nail-biter: Doubly super

Super Overs are cricket’s version of watching a bomb-disposal specialist at work in a movie. Tick, tick… Perhaps, like the potential of the wrong wire being snapped off in the scene, it’s the fact that a batting team can lose two wickets and the game can end right there that makes a Super Over different from the last over of a chase in the regular playtime. What’s the ultimate high? The second Super Over, of course.

Like it was, late into Wednesday night, when India’s Ravi Bishnoi defended 11 runs by taking out two wickets in three balls to break the hearts of Afghanistan. There is also the drama of the wait after the end of regulation time, watching the decisions of the two captains in choosing their personnel. Like Rohit chose Ravi Bishnoi to bowl in the second Super Over. Or how he opted to retire and get in the faster runner, Rinku Singh, instead, in the last ball of the first Super Over; a successful decision as Rinku hared across to steal a single after the ball had been squeezed behind to the wicketkeeper. Without that, though there is an ongoing debate about how the umpires handled that rule, there wouldn’t have been the second Super Over.

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What elevates the Super Over experience is a fresh start to the game, erasing all the sins and virtues thus far. Three best batsmen (potentially) vs the best bowler with six legal balls in hand — unlike the final over of the chase in normal time where often the best batsman or best bowler may not be there. Unlike football’s penalty shootouts, where the game is stripped of its beautiful team nuances and zooms into a striker and a goalkeeper, nothing is reduced in cricket. Even players like Jasprit Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada who have delivered match-winning Super Over performances have talked about how it’s different from the last over in normal time. For the fans, too, it is that much more riveting.