India defeated New Zealand by 70 run to cruise into an ODI World Cup final for the first time since 2011 triumph.
New Delhi: India captain Rohit Sharma admitted to being put under pressure but keeping calm in crunch situations helped India as the Men in Blue defeated New Zealand by 70 runs to march into the final of ODI World Cup 2023 on Wednesday. India will meet either South Africa or Australia in the summit clash on Sunday in Ahmedabad.
Opting to bat first, India put on a mammoth 397/4 in 50 overs, courtesy Virat Kohli’s 50th ODI hundred (117) and Shreyas Iyer’s (105) second consecutive World Cup century. Rohit Sharma (47) and Shubman Gill (80 not out) also contributed with the bat.
In reply, New Zealand lost their openers to Shami before Daryl Mitchell (134) and Kane Williamson (69) put on 181 runs to steady the ship. However, just when it looked that New Zealand would take the game away, Shami brought India back into the game with two wickets in an over.
With Mitchell still in the middle, New Zealand had their chances, but Shami put water in all Kiwi dreams by picking up the dangerman and eventually finished the game with a career-best of 7/57.
“I have played a lot of cricket here, you cannot relax. You got to get the job done as quickly as possible. We knew there’ll be pressure on us. We were calm even though we were a bit sloppy on the field. These things are bound to happen, glad that we could get the job done,” Rohit said after the game.
Keep believing pic.twitter.com/oizJU6ugDC
— K L Rahul (@klrahul) November 15, 2023
Keeping calm was Rohit’s message to the who team and that helped. “When the scoring rate is above 9, you gotta take chances. They gave us chances, we didn’t take them., Mitchell and Williamson batted brilliantly. We had to stay calm.
“The crowd went silent, that’s the nature of the game. We knew we had to pull something from our sleeves. We tried everything and Shami was brilliant. The top five-six batters, they have made it count. Very pleased with what Iyer has done in this tournament. Gill, the way he batted upfront was brilliant, unfortunately he had to return back.
“Kohli, as usual, was brilliant, played his trademark innings and got to his landmark. All in all, the batting was superb. That’s the template we want to move with. England game, we got only 230 on the board.
“The way our bowlers bowled upfront, they picked wickets. Today, I wouldn’t say there was no pressure. Guys were doing the job. We wanted to do what we’ve been doing in the first nine games. Things came off really nice,” he added.