First Semifinal: Will India Prevail Over A Resurgent New Zealand?
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-11-15 02:36:12
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The business end of the ODI World Cup begins today with unbeaten India taking on a resurgent New Zealand at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. The Wankhede pitch is expected to be slow as the Indian team management has requested the curators to prepare a slow surface. With the New Zealand bowlers coming back to form in the last couple of matches after their lackluster showing in the opening matches, the Indian team management fears Trent Boult & Co to restrict them in the power play. Also, with Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in good form, India wants them to choke the New Zealanders in the middle over on a slow pitch.
But ultimately it will boil down to a test of Indian bowlers, who are on fire in the tournament, coming up against the likes of the in-form Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips and the Indian plan of getting hitman Rohit Sharma to give them a flying start against Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson and Mitchell Santner. The team that gets its plan rolling will have an upper edge in what promises to be a nail-biting match.
Form favours India as they have been ruthless in the tournament with all the batters firing at right moments and the bowlers becoming unplayable in some matches. The best thing about this Indian team is that it is not overly dependent on any one batsman or bowler. They are firing as a team and that has given them excellent results. Both teams are well balanced and New Zealand will be hoping for a repeat of the 2019 WC when they met and beat the till then unbeaten India in the semifinals by 18 runs. India, on the other hand, would like to maintain their winning run and enter the final unbeaten. They would need a bit of luck too and as skipper Rohit Sharma said the team would be hoping that fortune favours the brave.
