India beat New Zealand in the ICC Men's World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday (November 15). In what was a high-scoring contest, India made 397/4 after electing to bat first, riding on hundreds from Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli's record 50th ODI ton. In response, Daryl Mitchell's innings kept them alive even after Mohammed Shami scalped two wickets early but in the end, they fell short by 70 runs, getting bowled out for 327 with Shami eventually ending with a seven-wicket haul.
The tone of the match was set by captain Rohit Sharma himself. While it was yet to be seen whether the team would play with the same fearless approach, come the knockout stage of the match, all such doubts were put to bed by the skipper himself in an innings which might not be as statistically pleasing as Kohli's 117 off 113 and Iyer's 105 off 70 but perhaps of a similar significance.
Shubman Gill (80* off 66) retired hurt and KL Rahul's 39 off 20 were equally impressive as India got to the total which they eventually did since it was important, given that dew was expected to come in later in the innings with the conditions set to remain equally good or even better under the floodlights.
Williamson-Mitchell Stand Silenced Wankhede Crowd For A Bit
In the run-chase, despite losing two wickets early, 181-run stand between Kane Williamson (69 off 73) and Mitchell kept the team alive in the chase and even silenced a packed Wankhede Stadium, given the way they were going about their job. However, Shami returned to break the stand before Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav's overs at the death more or less sealed a win for the hosts. Shami then came back to register the best-ever figures by an Indian bowler in the World Cup, ending with 7 for 57.
Mohammed Siraj (1/78), Bumrah (1/64) and Kuldeep (1/56) were the other wicket-takers for India as they sealed a place in a World Cup final after 12 years. They will now play the winner of the Australia-South Africa semifinal on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.