India won the semifinals against New Zealand by 44 runs. Varun Chakravarthy has been the star of the Indian innings with a fifer. Initially, India struggled during the batting when it lost both its openers by a mere 22 runs. Shreyas Iyer along with Axar Patel stabilized the Indian paralyzed innings by building a partnership of 98 runs. From New Zealand’s end, Matt Henry also took a fifer by dismissing India’s top batters including Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill. Shreyas Iyer smashed 79 runs and missed a potential century today.
Varun Chakravarthy returns to the side with a maiden ODI five-for 👌#ChampionsTrophy #NZvIND ✍️: https://t.co/F2UBD2cv49 pic.twitter.com/jTneVGTBAU
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Kane Williamson 81 runs of 120 balls playing a slow yet crucial innings. India gave a reasonable target of 250 to the Kiwi batters but the spin magic of Varun, Chakravarthy has led them to the victory podium in the last match of the league stage. We also witnessed some brilliant fielding from Kane Williamson, Glenn Phillips and Axar Patel with their spectacular catches.
It could be very well seen that today’s game belonged to the spinners. Apart from Chakravarthy’s fifer, Kuldeep Yadav took 2 wickets and Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel bagged 1 wicket for themselves. Surprisingly Mohammad Shami could not put any wickets for himself in the bag while Hardik Pandya’s contribution with the bat and the ball was commendable. Pandya smashed 45 runs while claiming 1 wicket for himself.
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India will now meet its arch-rival Australia in the Semifinals, but after witnessing today’s performance it is clear that it would be a competition of the two biggest powerhouses of the cricket fraternity. South Africa topped group B and will now play against New Zealand on 5 March at Lahore.
