Interestingly, India had entered this match with four spinners and two fast bowlers. The Indian team got the benefit of fielding four spinners as spinners took nine wickets of New Zealand. From India, Mohammed Shami was the only bowler who remained empty-handed.
New Zealand’s batting order collapsed against the deadly bowling of spinner Varun Chakraborty. India continued their unbeaten campaign by defeating the Kiwis by 44 runs in their last match of Group A. Rohit Sharma’s army won all three of their matches in the group stage and secured the top spot. India will now take on Australia in the semi-finals on March 4 in Dubai. Australia’s team finished second in Group B. At the same time, in another semi-final, New Zealand will clash with South Africa in Lahore on March 5.
Indian spinners dominated
India had entered this match with four spinners and two fast bowlers. The Indian team got the advantage of playing four spinners because the spinners took nine wickets of New Zealand, which is the highest number of wickets taken by spinners in an innings in the Champions Trophy. Earlier in 2004, Pakistan’s bowlers claimed eight wickets against Kenya. Mohammad Shami was India’s lone bowler who went empty-handed. However, he only bowled four overs in this game.
Varun took the wickets of Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, and Matt Henry. At the same time, Kuldeep got two wickets (Daryl Mitchell and Will O’Rourke), while Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel took one wicket. Fast bowler Hardik Pandya got one success while Shami remained empty-handed.
India’s top order disappointed
The Indian team, which came to play its third match in the Champions Trophy, did not play as expected today. The team had a bad start itself. Shubman Gill, who scored 147 runs in the last two matches, was out after scoring just two runs against New Zealand, while captain Rohit Sharma returned to the pavilion after scoring just 15 runs. During this, Virat Kohli, who was playing the 300th ODI of his career, also gave a disappointing performance. He became the victim of Matt Henry and lost his wicket with a score of 30 runs. Glenn Phillips made an unprecedented catch. This match played in Dubai was very important in terms of preparations for the semi-finals. After losing the toss and batting first, the Indian team scored 249 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs, which the team was successful in defending.
Pacers troubled the Indian batsmen
New Zealand bowlers proved to be a problem for the Indian batsmen in the first innings. The Pacers bowled 25 overs for the Kiwis, against whom India lost a total of seven wickets. During this time, the team could score only 115 runs. At the same time, against the spinners, the Indian batsmen scored 124 runs for the loss of two wickets. The interesting thing is that batsmen chose the wrong shot up to 20% against pacers while it was only 8.4% against slow bowlers. This shows that Indian players did not have much of a problem against spinners.
Shreyas Iyer and Akshar Patel performed well in the middle order. There was a partnership of 98 runs between the two for the fourth wicket. Rachin Ravindra got Akshar caught by Kane Williamson. He managed to score 42 runs with the help of three fours and a six. At the same time, Shreyas Iyer hit a fifty for the second consecutive match. Apart from him, Hardik Pandya scored 45 runs, due to which India’s score crossed 200.
Henry broke the back
In the 12th match of the Champions Trophy, fast bowler Matt Henry wreaked havoc. He made Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, and Mohammad Shami his victims. During these times, he spent only 42 runs. With this, he became the second bowler from New Zealand to take five wickets in this tournament. Before him, Jacob Oram had achieved this feat. He took five wickets for 36 runs in 2004. At the same time, Shane O Connor took five wickets for 46 runs in the match played against Pakistan in 2000.
What happened in the match?
Batting first, India scored 249 runs for nine wickets in 50 overs, based on Shreyas Iyer’s half-century innings. Chasing the target, Kane Williamson scored 81 runs, but New Zealand’s team was all out for 205 runs in 45.3 overs. Varun bowled excellently for India, taking five wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. Varun performed admirably on his Champions Trophy debut. New Zealand was in a good position at one time, but Varun turned the tide in India’s favor by performing strongly, and India won the match by 44 runs.
