Bracewell stars in New Zealand's incredible final-over heist

Harry Tector's maiden ODI hundred went in vain as New Zealand stole the opening game of the series right at the death against Ireland in Dublin on Sunday (July 10). Chasing 301, New Zealand were all set to go down when they were 153/6 at one stage. However, Michael Bracewell's stunning assault stunned the Irish attack as New Zealand won by one wicket and took a 1-0 lead.

The visitors looked dead and buried in the chase when Mark Adair and Craig Young struck inside the first six overs. To make matters worse, Curtis Campher surprised Tom Latham with a yorker to trap him lbw. Even though Martin Guptill looked impressive at one end, Campher kept making further inroads with the wicket of Henry Nicholls.

Campher and Andy McBrine struck again before the 30th over to wreck the visitors and add more pressure but Bracewell took charge since then. By the end of the 40th over, New Zealand needed 101 from 60 deliveries - an equation no one thought would be feasible at that point. Ish Sodhi's run out in the 41st over after New Zealand had already fetched two sixes in the over, proved to signal an end to the side's slimmest of hopes. With the runs also drying up despite Bracewell going past 50, Ireland were poised to pick up a comfortable win with the equation reading 77 off 36 with just two wickets remaining.

Bracewell then took on Joshua Little for a couple of fours and a six before following it up with another six off Young to drag the game right until the end. With 40 needed off 18, the 31-year-old reached his century off 74 deliveries. Even at that stage, Ireland would have fancied their chances of closing out the game in their favour when the equation came down to 20 off 6. But in what turned out to be a crazy finish, Bracewell went 4,4,6,4,6 against Young in that final over to pull off one of the greatest victories of all time in the format.

Earlier in the evening, Tector would have hoped that his first ever century in this format of the game would be enough to give his side vital Super League points against a second-string New Zealand side. Ireland lost their openers very early in the game before Tector steadied the ship. The early wickets didn't deter Tector from playing positive cricket as he added a couple of boundaries before the completion of the powerplay. While he did slow down post that, Andy McBrine kept the scorecard ticking with handy boundaries and brought up the half-century stand in the process. New Zealand then had to bring Lockie Ferguson back into the attack again to break the stand and he didn't disappoint.

Tector then joined forces with Campher to keep New Zealand at bay in the middle overs. The two batters added 94 in quick time before the golden arm of debutant Glenn Phillips did the trick. Tector thereafter took charge and the likes of Lorcan Tucker and George Dockrell made handy contributions alongside him to inject momentum into the Irish innings. Even though New Zealand did stage a commendable fightback removing three wickets in quick succession - including that of the centurion - the Irish had the last laugh with Simi Singh's cameo taking them to 300. Little did they know that a crazy twist was in store for them right at the death.

Brief scores: Ireland 300/9 in 50 overs (Harry Tector 113, Curtis Campher 43; Lockie Ferguson 2/44) lost to New Zealand 305/9 in 49.5 overs (Michael Bracewell 127*, Martin Guptill 51; Curtis Campher 3/49) by1 wicket