India continued their unbeaten run in the ongoing Champions Trophy with a massive win against New Zealand in the final Group A clash in Dubai. Kane Williamson with a gritty 81 fought for a while but with him running out of partners and a rising required rate, it wasn’t to be for the Kiwis.
India maintained their 100 per cent record in the ongoing Champions Trophy with a third consecutive win and topped Group A to set up a semi-final date with Australia, their nemesis in ICC knockouts in recent times. India overcame the challenge of a tough New Zealand side, who restricted the Men in Blue to 249/9 after choosing to bowl first before Varun Chakravarthy spun an intricate web that the Kiwis found really hard to breach and the mystery spinner with a maiden ODI fifer ran riot with the ball to hand his side a massive 44-run win.
On a track that took turn and stayed a bit low and slow, former New Zealand captain Kane Williamson came to the party at a crunch moment and looked like he could take the Black Caps home but needed someone to stay put alongside him. The plan did work for a fair bit but with the ever-rising run rate Williamson, who scored a gritty 81, had to take risks and one proved to be fatal.
Williamson decided to dance down the track on the final delivery of Axar Patel’s spell but the left-arm spinner had bowled a bit slow. The batter had already committed and completely missed the delivery with KL Rahul on a poor keeping day, not missing the easiest of the chance to stump Williamson out. Whatever the Kiwi hopes were remaining, Axar dashed them and Virat Kohli was quick to acknowledge how important that wicket was in the context of the game.
Between the overs, Kohli was seen bending over and trying to touch Axar Patel’s feet as a mark of respect as per Indian tradition, Patel was quick to pull his feet back before both sat down on the ground. Patel didn’t let Kohli get to his feet even though the Indian batter tried his best and it made for an endearing moment on the field with both ending up in laughs. The video of the incident has gone viral. Take a look
Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav finished off the formalities as the Indian quartet of spinners ended up taking as many as nine wickets, a record for India in an ICC ODI match. New Zealand fell way short and ended up with two wins in three games and will now take on South Africa in the second semi-final on Wednesday, March 5 in Lahore.