India set Champions Trophy semifinal meet with Australia after beating New Zealand
ICC Champions Trophy: India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs: India beat New Zealand by 44 runs in their final group stage fixture of the ICC Champions Trophy on Sunday. Now India will face Australia in the first semi-final to be played in Dubai on the 4th March. Varun Chakravarthy played a key role in today’s victory. He sent half of the New Zealand team to the pavilion. He was also adjudged the Man of the Match.
New Zealand won the toss and invited India to bat. India were all out for 249 runs. The New Zealand team came on the field with a target of 250 runs. Rachin Ravindra and Will Young came to open. Both started playing big short. But in the second over, Rachin was caught by Akshan Patel off Hardik Pandya’s ball.
Then Kane Williamson came out to bat. He and Will Young held the innings for a while. Then, while scoring 22 runs individually, Will Young was bowled by Varun Chakravarthy. Then Daryl Mitchell came out to bat. He also could not stay at the crease for long. He was LBWed by Kuldeep Yadav.
On one side, Kane Williamson was batting with great determination, but the Indian spinners were unable to cope with them and were getting out one by one and returning to the pavilion. Tom Latham (14), Glenn Phillips (12), Michael Bracewell (2), Matt Henry (2) were out after making 2 runs. Finally, Kane Williamson went to play big short and was stumped. He was stumped out by Akshan Patel.
Then came out to bat, captain Mitchell Santner batted with a smoky over. He scored 28 runs individually before being bowled by Varun Chakravarthy. Next, came out to bat, William ORourke, who was dismissed, and Kyle Jamieson was not out on 9 runs. New Zealand were all out for 205 runs. For India, Varun Chakravarthy took 5 wickets, while Kuldeep took 2 wickets, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel and Hardik Pandya took one wicket each.
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