Twitter Reactions: Iyer's fifty, Chakravarthy's fifer lead India to top Group A with emphatic win over NZ
At the halfway point, it felt as if India's total would prove to be insufficient.
India ended their group-stage of the ongoing edition of the Champions Trophy unbeaten with a convincing 44-run victory against New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, March 2. With this victory, it is set that they will play their semi-final against Australia at the same venue on Tuesday, March 4.
Rohit Sharma lost the toss on yet another instance, his tenth consecutive. His side was sent in to bat first. A top-order meltdown left India struggling at 37/3 at the end of the powerplay. Shreyas Iyer combined along with Axar Patel to steer their side to calmer waters. Axar departed in the 30th over for a well-made 42. Iyer brought up his 22nd ODI half-century before Axar departed. The short delivery brought about the undoing of Iyer, who fell for a composed for a 98-ball 79-run knock.
Mitchell Santner secured his first wicket of the afternoon, taking out KL Rahul who nicked behind. Hardik Pandya, who started off slow, gradually picked up his strike rate. Overs from 42 and 44 did not result in any boundaries. The defining moment arose during the penultimate over of the innings, where Hardik racked up 15 off Kyle Jamieson's over. Matt Henry wrapped up the innings by securing a couple of wickets in the final over, ending up with his first five-wicket haul against India in his 11th ODI appearance.
Coming to New Zealand's reply, the danger man, Rachin Ravindra, departed early in the piece by slicing to Axar at deep third. Kane Williamson came in at No.3, joining Will Young in a bid to navigate the run-chase. Young departed briefly after the end of powerplay. From that point onwards, the spinners put in the squeeze on the Kiwis' batting unit. Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, and Glenn Phillips all got starts, but were unable to make their starts count.
After Williamson's dismissal, Santner tried his best to take the match close. However, it was a masterful display of bowling from mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy, which proved to be the difference at the end. Coming in as an experimental replacement in the place of Harshit Rana, the 33-year-old bowled his heart out in just his second ODI of his career. He ended up yielding splendid figures of 5/42 at the end of his 10-over quota. Will O’Rourke was the last person to fall, with the Black Caps getting bundled over for 205 in 45.3 overs.
Also Check: India vs New Zealand, Match 12 - Who Said What?
Check out how X reacted to Match 12 of the Champions Trophy between IND and NZ
2
00000100000100014010Download Our App