Everyone thought that it would be a favorable final for team India as they had created a chance to play New Zealand, the fourth placed, most underrated team, the dark horse of the tournament. This was favored by team Australia when they lost to South Africa in their last league, creating a scenario of playing England in the second semifinal against England instead of a pre-designed first semifinal which they would play against the Kiwis.
India was one of the favorites for the world cup title, and they played as per expectations in the entire tournament, except that lost match against England. The cricket lovers of the world would have predicted an India – Australia final, it is easy to predict isn’t it? Australia too had played strong in this world cup and was looking as contenders for the title. I, in fact had predicted an India – England final fixture. Everyone has their own ideologies and logics. But destiny doesn’t go as per logic and magic; it has a different tale to tell.
Indian fans might be equally heartbroken just like me, when India lost the semifinal against New Zealand at Old Trafford and were knocked out of the world cup.
The scenarios behind this match were strange. Only one of the India’s matches was washed out in the league matches, which was against New Zealand. New Zealand struggled to qualify to the semi finals as they were stuck with the mathematics, permutations, and chemistry of other teams including Pakistan if they were to qualify to the top four. But strangely New Zealand was favored by all mathematics. They were the first team to qualify into the semis and sealed the fourth place once Pakistan was put out of equation of the contention. New Zealand was to play their first semifinal against Australia had the later team won over South Africa in their last league match. But India entered into the equation after being the top placed team following their win against Sri Lanka in their last league. India would have been happy to play New Zealand at this stage instead of a strong England team which they had to place had they been at second place. India’s Thursday semifinal which was predicted to be against England turned out to be a Tuesday semifinal against New Zealand. India was playing the same team which they missed out to play due to rain. To make matters worse, the semifinal too saw the rain pouring and the match went to Wednesday, the reserved day. When the day changes, your fortune too might change! On the cards, the first placed team was playing against the fourth placed team. But the ranks won’t matter when you play good and when the stars favor you on the decisive day. New Zealand was not only lucky, but also played good cricket, better than India and qualified to the finals.
New Zealand won the toss and as expected elected to bat first. They had to face tight bowling spells by team India and couldn’t score freely. After they lost Martin Guptill in the 4th over when the score board read 1/1 and Henry Nicholas in the 19th over when the score was 69 for 2, New Zealand went into the shell. Kane Williamson (67 runs) and Ross Taylor (74 runs) stuck form suddenly and steadied the ship for Kiwis. At a stage, Kiwis had not even reached 100 in 30 overs. The scoring rate was pretty slow. India was on the top of their game. New Zealand never crossed the run rate of 4 runs per over until 42 overs, this shows the dominance of Indian bowlers. The exception was Chahal. It was horrible to bring in Chahal replacing Kuldeep was looking good in the previous match. It was also horrible on the part of Indian think tank for not brining Shami in an important match. I just would avoid discussing the pathetic part of this selection fearing deviation of my write up. One of Chahal’s over fetched 19 runs in a single over which happened to be the difference when India lost at the end. At the end of the first session it rained! Rain drenched and killed the Indian fortunes. But no one would have expected that the rain was more than a spoilsport for India. It was a knock-out rain. The rain never stopped. The match went to reserve day with New Zealand at 211 for 5 with 23 balls to be bowled. New Zealand came back on the reserved day, scored 28 runs in those 23 balls, lost 3 more wickets and finished with 239 for 8 setting a target of 240 to win for India. The way Ross Taylor carried his bat almost till the end, with a patient knock scripted a good score for New Zealand. India would have prayed that Kane and Ross shouldn’t play good in this important match and that just reversed. Both batsmen came into this semifinal with offbeat form and showed their true character, showed how good they were on their given day. Kane and Ross had read the pitch. When everyone commented that New Zealand never accelerated the score board and kept a turtle pace in scoring those runs and when it was predicted that 240 would be a cake-walk for strong Indian batting line up, I feel New Zealand was contended with what they scored on a tricky track. Only half the story was over and the second half was yet to come. India had to play against a disciplined Kiwi attack on this unpredictable pitch. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar picked 3 wickets. Hasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja bowled tight and unplayable spells and choked the Kiwi scoring rate.
When India came to bat, it became a fairy tale for Kiwis while a nightmare start for India when India lost Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and K.L. Rahul with score board reading 5 for 3 in the 4th over, each of the batsmen getting 1 run to their credit. Trent Boult and Matt Henry were spilling havoc on Indian Batsmen. The fortune and result of the match was clear. It needed the Indian middle order to flourish in these conditions. Rishabh Pant who was looking confident the most by any Indian batsman and Hardik Pandya who was playing an unusual knock, scoring slowly in an uncharacteristic way, poured hopes into the Indian dressing room. But they decided to throw their wickets at crucial junctures of the match. Scuffle in the Indian batting order, panic in Indian dressing room with Captain Virat Kohli coming out in rage and disappointment and having serious discussions with coach Shastri, India holding back M.S. Dhoni and sending him late, Dinesh Karthik who was promoted ahead of Dhoni playing 20 dots upfront and showing demons in the pitch, all these showed that New Zealand had created panic in the Indian team. In between, Ravindra Jadeja was bent upon doing the entire heroics single handedly. His 77 in 59 balls and a century partnership with Dhoni (50 runs) almost took away the match from the New Zealand’s hold. India looked like winning the match. Then, following a few dot balls, the pressure increased and Ravindra Jadeja succumbed, leaving Dhoni to do the finishing act with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and the rest of the tail. The final nail in India’s coffin was hit by Martin Guptill when he ran Dhoni out with a smart throw at the timber. Guptill, who hasn’t contributed almost anything for Kiwis in this world cup suddenly did it for them with one throw. New Zealand jumped in joy as they upset India by 18 runs. They really deserved to be there. Fortunes favor the brave. Fortune also favors those who are brainy. On this day it favored the New Zealand team, as they were courageous and brainy. Matt Henry (3 for 37) was the pick of Kiwi bowlers. Trent Boult (2 for 42) and Mitchell Santner (2 for 34) were not far enough from troubling Indian batsmen.
India will have to wait for another 4 years. I wish they make some sense to pick up a good team at least for World Cup and not favored, flavored and seasoned players. That is good in the favor of the country. Luck and rankings do not help you always!
But having said that, whatever team India had (chose???) they had a good campaign and was looking to win the world cup until semifinal happened. Cheers to Kohli and his team!
Hearty congratulations for New Zealand. Wish they win the world cup and prove that they are worth it!
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