New Delhi. India has scored a hat-trick of wins in the Champions Trophy by defeating New Zealand. Team India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in the last league match played in Dubai. With this, it has also been confirmed which team India will face in the semi-finals. The Indian team will face world champion Australia in Dubai on March 4 in the semi-finals. While the second semi-final will be played between New Zealand and South Africa in Lahore on March 5. Spinner Varun Chakraborty emerged as the hero in India's victory. Varun sent 5 New Zealand batsmen to the pavilion. Varun took 5 wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. India has entered the semi-finals by topping the table with 6 points. Team India completed a hat-trick of victories in the current tournament by defeating Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand.
Chasing the target of 250 runs set by India, New Zealand's team collapsed at 205 runs in 45.3 overs. Kane Williamson scored the highest 81 runs for the Kiwi team. Williamson hit 7 fours in 120 balls. Captain Mitchell Santner played an innings of 28 runs while opener Will Young scored 22 runs. Varun took 5 wickets for India while Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel and Hardik Pandya took one wicket each. With this, the Indian team also settled a 25-year-old account with New Zealand. The Kiwi team had defeated India in the final of the Champions Trophy in the year 2000 and deprived them of the title.
Earlier, despite a half-century by Shreyas Iyer (79), New Zealand restricted India to 249 for 9 due to the excellent performance of the bowlers led by Matt Henry. Henry took five wickets for 42 runs in eight overs. He got good support from the other bowlers of the team. Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke, captain Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra took one wicket each for New Zealand. New Zealand's fielders saved important runs by taking some amazing catches.
India lost three wickets for 30 runs in the first seven overs. But Iyer played a restrained innings of 79 runs with the help of four fours and two sixes in a 98-ball innings, apart from sharing a 98-run partnership in 136 balls for the fourth wicket with Axar Patel (42) to recover the team from a bad start. He also shared a 44-run partnership in 42 balls with Lokesh Rahul (23). Akshar hit three fours and a six in his 61-ball innings. In the last overs, Hardik Pandya scored 45 runs in 45 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes to take the team close to 250 runs.
On being invited to bat first, Rohit Sharma hit a four and a six in an aggressive manner against Matt Henry, but this fast bowler gave India the first blow by dismissing Shubman Gill (two). Rohit (15) returned to the pavilion after being caught by Will Young while trying to play a big shot against Kyle Jamieson. Virat Kohli, who scored an unbeaten century against Pakistan, also failed to play a big innings. Glenn Phillips took a brilliant catch towards point on Henry's ball, ending his innings of 11 runs in 14 balls. After losing three wickets for 30 runs in the seventh over, Shreyas Iyer and Akshar Patel batted cautiously and took the team's score to 46 runs in 15 overs.
Akshar ended his 52-ball drought of boundaries by hitting a four against Santner. Iyer tried to speed up the run rate by hitting three fours against O'Rourke in the next over. The team completed its century in the 25th over, which Iyer celebrated with a brilliant four against Bracewell. Iyer and Akshar were now having no trouble stealing runs against New Zealand's spinners. Iyer completed his half-century in 75 balls by taking a run against Rachin Ravindra, which is the slowest fifty of his ODI career. Akshar hit a brilliant six off Bracewell but failed to adjust to Rachin's high-bounce ball and the ball took the top edge of his bat and went into Williamson's hands.
Rahul opened his hands with a four against this bowler in the next over, while Iyer hit sixes against Ravindra and O'Rourke. However, O'Rourke gave India a big blow by dismissing Iyer in the 37th over. Rahul once again failed to convert a good start into a big innings. Ravindra Jadeja hit a four against Bracewell in the 41st over, while Hardik Pandya hit a six to take the team close to 200 runs, but Williamson dived and took a brilliant catch with his left hand on Henry's ball, putting an end to Jadeja's innings of 16 runs in 20 balls. Pandya scored 15 runs from the over by hitting two fours and a six on consecutive balls against Jamieson in the 49th over, but returned to the pavilion after getting caught by Ravindra on Henry's slow bouncer in the last over. Henry completed his five wickets by dismissing Shami (05) on the last ball of the innings.
