5 low-scoring thrillers that ended in an Indian victory

#3 India vs New Zealand at Auckland, 2003

Nehra and Srinath saw India through to a close victory

Victory margin – 1 wicket

India’s tour to New Zealand in the 2002/03 season was a disaster in every way but the ODI series did witness them register a thrilling victory over the hosts. The 7-match series had already slipped out of their hands as they lost the first 4 matches before eventually winning the 5^th game at Wellington.

The Indians were looking to restore some pride when they met the Kiwis once again in the 6^th ODI at Auckland. With Sourav Ganguly winning the toss and deciding to field first on a seaming pitch, the home side were on the back foot as they lost 4 wickets for just 50 runs.

An 80-run partnership between Scott Styris and Lou Vincent restored order in the New Zealand innings but the former’s dismissal triggered yet another collapse and they were reduced to 147 for 9. However, a belligerent unbeaten stand of 52 runs between Vincent and Shane Bond propelled their score to 199.

The visitors got off to a great start with Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly adding 70 runs at the top of the order and the good work continued as Sehwag and Rahul Dravid shared a 72-run 2^nd wicket partnership. Dravid was dismissed with India on 142 for 2 and Sachin Tendulkar didn’t hang around for long, too.

With India needing just another 18 runs for victory, centurion Virender Sehwag also got out and the innings started to fall apart. The hero of the previous match, Zaheer Khan, was the 9^th man to get out, leaving Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath with 2 runs to score in 9 balls.

While Srinath ran a leg bye off the 4^th ball of the 49^th over, Nehra managed to turn the penultimate delivery towards cow corner and pull off a 1-wicket win for India.