All You Need to Know About the Super Over Innings!

Cricket is an unpredictable sport. The moment you think that the current team on bat is winning, the very next moment the team that is bowling may change the entire game. It is intriguing, interesting, and an extremely fun sport to watch. Cricket matches are of different types, one-day matches, test matches, championship leagues, 20-20 innings, and so on. Amongst these, 20-20 innings have become quite a big hit in recent times and to make the experience even more interesting for spectators, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2008 founded the Indian Premier League (IPL). It is a yearly T20 championship that is played by various teams with players from different countries. Currently, the IPL 2020 is being played and cricket fans all over are excited to get their dose of the latest IPL news every day. The matches played in the IPL can bring you to the very edge of your seat with their exciting innings and results, that sometimes are being decided by the Super Over.

Super Over – An Overview

Also known as the One-Over Eliminator, this is a technique that is used to decide the winner of a limited-over match. The Super Over comes into picture when the scores are tied, regardless of the number of wickets lost by each team. In this, both teams get to bowl six balls each where the bowling team puts forward one bowler and the batting team nominates two batsmen from their respective playing XI. For both on the batting side, any batsman from the playing XI, whether dismissed earlier during the main innings or not, can play the Super Over.

The only update, whether it is IPL or any other limited-over cricket match, that takes place is that the team that batted first in the main innings gets to bowl first in the Super Over. Other than this, both teams have to follow the same fielding patterns and restrictions that were used in the last over of the main innings. One-Over Eliminator innings end when a team loses two wickets and the team with the most runs scored during the Super Over is declared as the winner. Here, the Decision Review System (DRS) is applied as well, and each team is allowed only one unsuccessful review.

What Happens When the Super Over Scores are Tied?

If you recall the 2019 World Cup, the Super Over score was tied, which made the match even more exciting. As per previous rules, if a Super Over is tied then, the team that scored the most boundaries (fours and sixes) in both the main innings as well as the Super Over innings was declared as the winner. In case the boundary count was also equal, the team that scored most numbers of boundaries in the main match excluding the Super Over was declared the winner. However, in October 2019, the International Council of Cricket (ICC) updated the rules regarding ties in the One-Over Eliminator scores. Now, according to the rules, if a match is tied at the end of the Super Over, it will be played again till either of the teams wins the innings. However, if the matches are not limited over and are played in group stages, if there is a tie in the Super Over, the match remains to be a tie.

Whether it is keeping up with IPL news or a test match report, cricket is a sport that you will not only enjoy watching but reading about as well. The cheering of the spectators, the joy of seeing your favourite team win, and the nerve wracking wait for the last over to decide the fate of a match is a different feeling altogether and the Super Over surely makes it even the experience even more enthralling.