The India cricket team has topped Group A after beating New Zealand by 44 runs. Although both teams had qualified, this game was supposed to decide the semifinal opponents. Now it’s confirmed that India will face Australia in the first semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy, and it’ll be South Africa vs. New Zealand for the second one.
Knowing the nature of the Dubai surface, Team India made one change to the XI. Varun Chakaravarthy came in for Harshit Rana, and New Zealand wasn’t well equipped to handle the mystery spin. He troubled every Kiwi batter he bowled to and ended up with a 5-wicket haul.
Shreyas Iyer & Axar Patel save India
Rohit Sharma’s luck when it comes to the toss continued to be bad. He lost his 10th consecutive toss in ODIs as India’s captain. As if Rohit’s poor luck wasn’t enough, the Men in Blue got off to an even worse start. The top three, Rohit, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli, departed in the powerplay.
The openers could have avoided the dismissals, but Kohli couldn’t have done anything. Glenn Phillips took one of the greatest catches you’ll see, plucking the ball out of the air with his right hand while fielding at point. The reaction from Kohli’s fans was noteworthy.
Shreyas Iyer once again showed why he’s rated so highly. He anchored the innings with Axar Patel. Their 98-run stand brought Team India back into the game. Unfortunately, both missed out on their personal milestones. Axar fell for 42 while Shreyas got 79. KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya did well on what was a slow and tough pitch. Taking Team India to 249. Given the Men in Blue had four spinners, chasing 250 wasn’t going to be easy.
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Indian spinners choke New Zealand batters
Leaving Harshit Rana out didn’t hurt Team India as Hardik Pandya sent in-form Rachin Ravindra back to the pavilion with a sharp bouncer. But New Zealand ended the powerplay ahead, 44/1. But when the shine went away from the ball, things got tough for the Kiwis. In the next ten overs (11-20), India gave away just 36 runs and got a wicket.
BlackCaps upped the ante in the next ten, but Team India still remained ahead. They lost Daryl Mitchell, and after 30 overs, they were 125/3. They were exactly at the halfway mark when it came to runs needed, but the required run rate was 6.25 by now. Ravindra Jadeja sent Tom Latham back, and Varun Chakaravarthy was brought back in the 34th over and closed the game by sending Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell to the hut.
New Zealand was left with 4 wickets and needed 85 runs in 60 balls. The only issue for Team India was that Kane Williamson was still batting. The issue didn’t last long, though. In the 41st over, Axar Patel got the Kiwi star batter stumped and ended all hopes for victory. From there on, it was a mere obligation to either bowl the overs out or take the remaining wickets.
Such was the dominance of Indian spinners that they created a record. Axar, Kuldeep, Jadeja, and Chakaravarthy combined took nine wickets; no other team in the ICC Champions Trophy history took more than 8 (Pakistan against Kenya in Edgbaston in 2017).
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