India vs New Zealand Highlights World Cup 2023: India (274/6) beat New Zealand (273) by 4 wickets in Dharamsala
India vs New Zealand Highlights World Cup 2023: India continued the supreme run in the ongoing World Cup and defeated New Zealand by four wickets in Dharamsala on Sunday. This was India’s fifth win from the same number of matches, an outcome which helped the hosts climb to the pole position in the ten-team points table.
India, who were asked to chase a stiff 274, wrapped the proceedings with two overs to spare. Virat Kohli was the leading figure in India’s run chase but he missed out on a well deserved century. Kohli was dismissed for 95(104) but by the time it happened New Zealand were already out of contention. During the course of his innings, Kohli was involved in three fifty-plus stands (52 with Shreyas Iyer, 54 with KL Rahul, and 78 with Ravindra Jadeja). Jadeja too played a good hand with the bat and returned unbeaten on 39 off 44 balls.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India a strong start. The pair mostly dealt in boundaries and added 71 runs for the first wicket before Lockie Ferguson cleaned up Rohit for 46(40). Shortly after the pacer got rid of Gill for 26(31).
Haze and low visibility had interrupted the run chase in the 16th over but action resumed after a brief delay.
Earlier, Mohammed Shami led India’s recovery in the last 10 overs with a five-wicket haul in his first match of this World Cup. New Zealand looked set to get somewhere close to, if not beyond, 300 runs during Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra’s 159-run stand that came in just 152 balls. While Mitchell went on to play a rather colossal innings, scoring 130 in 127 balls, New Zealand could score just 54 runs in the last 10 overs and lost six wickets.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first and while India stifled New Zealand for runs in the first 10 overs, Ravindra and Mitchell made India feel the heat in the cool environs of Dharamsala. The lack of a sixth seamer due to Hardik Pandya being injured and Shardul Thakur being dropped was felt keenly as the batters took spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to the cleaners. Kuldeep ended up conceding 32 runs in his first three overs which was in stark contrast to how the first 10 overs went. The Indian seamers were relentless in the first 10 overs and Mohammed Shami went on to dismiss Will Young with his first ball of the match in that period.
India were forced to use up all of Jadeja’s overs in the first 30 itself, with the spinner bowling 10 overs on the trot and ending with figures of 0/48. The partnership between the Ravindra and Mitchell eventually went past 150 when Bumrah dropped Mitchell at the boundary and the ball went over for four. The pain finally ended for India in the 34th over with Shami dismissing Ravindra for 75 off 87 balls. Kuldeep then got the wicket of New Zealand captain Tom Latham shortly thereafter but Mitchell soldiered on. He eventually scored his fifth ODI century. The Indians then fought back and New Zealand were all out for 273.