Image Credit- AP
In a top-of-the-table match against a New Zealand team
that has recently defeated them in worldwide tournament encounters, they were
without their most indispensable player, and this New Zealand side repeatedly
put them under a lot of strain. However, India eventually came to represent the
2023 World Cup’s equivalent of Gary Lineker’s well-known observation on a
superteam from another sport: “Football is an easy game. The Germans
always triumph after 90 minutes of chasing a ball with 22 men.
Even in this game, their most competitive battle to
date in this tournament, Virat Kohli attempted to repeat what he did against
Bangladesh on Thursday by refusing singles with India in striking distance of
victory in an effort to reach his hundred. We are still only halfway through
the league stage, and knockouts are still knockouts, but India have looked so
tough to beat.
India’s batting virtually came to an end with Jadeja
at No. 7 since Hardik Pandya was injured and was replaced by two players:
Suryakumar Yadav, a specialist batter, and Mohammed Shami, a specialist fast
bowler.
The enhanced threat of India’s pace attack, which
played a key role in bowling out New Zealand for 273 after they had been 178
for 2 at one point, made up for the lack of batting depth, though. Shami, who
was playing in his maiden match of the tournament, took the lead with his
second five-wicket haul in World Cup history. His intimidation of New Zealand’s
middle order served as the focal point of India’s outstanding effort in the
final 10 overs, during which they took six wickets while only giving up 54
runs.
Chasing a far lesser total than they may have first
anticipated, India got off to an alarming start with Rohit Sharma dominating a
first-wicket stand of 71 with Shubman Gill with four sixes in a 40-ball 46.
India gained an odd sort of retaliation during this partnership for the 2019
Old Trafford semifinal, when their fast bowlers had created just as much
problems with the new ball as New Zealand’s quicks but had taken far fewer
early wickets. There were no wickets in the first powerplay despite Henry
repeatedly breaking both openers’ bats, including Gill three times in a row,
and Trent Boult seeing an edge from Rohit fall short of slip.
After that, despite the fact that Kohli normally
worked in the shadows, the game was completely stopped for almost 15 minutes
due to a ghostly fog covering the ground. While KL Rahul shot down the wrong
line against Santner to be removed for the first time in the tournament and
Shreyas Iyer succumbed to another short ball, Kohli, who was the less dominant
partner in half-century stands for the third and fourth wickets, persevered as
he always does in run-chases.
Kohli earned 67 points off 57 balls after that. When
he made a mistake that caused Suryakumar Yadav to be returned, it was a big
setback, but once Jadeja allayed India’s concerns about their lack of batting
depth, the outcome was positive.