Dubai: India Beat New Zealand by 44 runs in the final group-stage match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
With this victory, India topped the Group A points table and are set to meet Australia in the semifinals of the Champions Trophy 2025.
While Shreyas Iyer’s 79-run knock came as a big relief during Indian batting, it was Varun Chakravarthy who grabbed five wickets giving away just 42 runs in 10 overs.
India is now slated to meet Australia in the first Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal on March 4 at Dubai, while New Zealand will clash with South Africa at Lahore on March 5.
Iyer made a composed 79 off 98 balls under pressure but New Zealand, led by pacer Mark Henry (5/42), managed to restrict India to an under-par 249 for nine.
Though Chasing 250 was not a tall order for New Zealand’s capable batting squad, they struggled against India’s spin quartet led by Chakravarthy (5/42) to be all out for 205 in 45.3 overs. Kane Williamson’s gritty 81 went in vain.
Indian spinners placed efficiency ahead of wizardry, and bowled in a manner suited to the conditions. Ravindra Jadeja found massive turn off the pitch but the New Zealand batters were done in by the effort from Chakravarthy who relentlessly targeted the stumps. Spinners took over once Hardik Pandya got rid of Rachin Ravindra early.
Williamson, who was dropped on 17 by stumper KL Rahul off Axar Patel, played a refined innings full of placements and elegance, but there hardly was any support for him from the other end.
There was a 44-run alliance between him and Daryl Mitchell for third wicket, but just as it was blooming Kuldeep Yadav trapped the latter in front.
They lost Tom Latham (14), Glenn Phillips (12) and Michael Bracewell (2) in quick succession, however, Williamson remained unruffled.
But Axar deceived an on-charge Williamson with a slightly fuller and slanted delivery, and Rahul just had to remove the bails from the stumps. The dismissal effectively sealed the match in favour of India.
Earlier, Iyer shared a well-paced 98 runs alliance with Axar (42 off 61 balls) for the fourth wicket and Hardik (45 off 45) played a quick-fire innings towards the end to help India survive a top-order meltdown.
Before Iyer’s rescue act and Hardik’s fire, India were tottering at 30 for 3 with skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli getting out cheaply.
