On a sweltering day at the Wankhede stadium, Virat Kohli whipped one towards backward square leg while facing Lockie Ferguson. The significance of that double was that it took Kohli past Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons. It took somewhere close to 9150 days to cross the landmark, and Kohli aptly punched the air in delight and bowed down to the great man, while Tendulkar stood up and applauded. Not just Tendulkar, but millions of fans across the country would have celebrated the mark. Some memories don’t fade away, and this would be one of them.
The India-New Zealand World Cup semifinal wasn’t just about Kohli’s 50th ODI hundred. Mohammed Shami’s heroics should be celebrated as much as Kohli’s milestone. Perhaps more. He took each of the first four wickets to fall and ultimately bagged a seven-for. Shreyas Iyer cracked a blistering 70-ball 105, while Daryl Mitchell’s gallant 134 (119 balls) turned out to be in vain as India won the game by 70 runs. Chasing a mammoth target of 398, New Zealand could muster only 327.
More than eight hours earlier, India had started on the right note by winning the toss on a used pitch. Not that it played a key role as the pitch held together surprisingly well. But it gave the chance for India to set a target in hot and humid conditions. Rohit Sharma, the India skipper, blazed away once more, flicking, lofting and pulling Trent Boult and Tim Southee. Shubman Gill too joined in the act. However, Rohit couldn’t convert yet another of his starts; dismissed by a Southee cutter.
Gill and Kohli then strung together a stand of 93 before Gill retired hurt in the extreme conditions. But there was no respite for New Zealand as Iyer and Kohli shared an alliance of 163 for the third wicket. All corners of the ground were explored by the pair. Not just powerful strokes, but there were delicate steers and dabs as well. Despite the heat, both of them also ran the opposition ragged with some good running between the wickets. At one point, the conditions even got to Kohli as he kept asking for water.
Finally, after scoring 117, Kohli flicked one to Devon Conway in the deep off Southee. He was given a standing ovation as he walked back to the pavilion. In the 49th over, Iyer also was dislodged. However, the run-fest didn’t end there as KL Rahul finished the innings in style with a sequence of 6-4-4. Southee bagged three wickets, but he went for 100 runs. Meanwhile, Boult, his long-term pace colleague, took the other wicket to fall.
The target was near-impossible to chase, and New Zealand slipped to 39 for 2. It was Shami who again rose to the occasion. On expected lines, he landed the first delivery on the seam and induced Conway to edge one behind. Rachin Ravindra, New Zealand’s batting sensation, didn’t last long either as he too was removed by Shami.
At that juncture, Kane Williamson and Mitchell joined forces to put India under a bit of pressure. After gauging the pitch conditions, Mitchell in particular crunched sumptuous lofts, along with cheeky reverse sweeps. At 220 for 2, in the 33rd over, the duo would have felt they had a small window of opportunity to pull off a jailbreak. It wasn’t to be as Williamson whipped one straight into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav at deep square leg off Shami. Shami, who had earlier fluffed a straightforward chance offered by Williamson at mid-on, then sent Tom Latham back to the hut with a nip-backer.
By then, Mitchell had started to cramp up. He and Glenn Phillips still soldiered on with a 75-run partnership. But once Phillips holed out to Ravindra Jadeja off Jasprit Bumrah, New Zealand’s campaign in the 2023 World Cup was all but over. Ultimately, Mitchell too was dismissed by the man of the moment, Shami. Fittingly, Shami took the last two wickets to fall for astonishing figures of 7 for 57. He consistently found nifty movement in largely good conditions for batting.
India now have won 10 matches in a row, their best-ever World Cup sequence, and will be quietly confident of hoisting the trophy for the third time.