Varun Chakaravarthy celebrates a wicket | Image: AP
Kane Williamson played a struggling innings of 81 runs but India won the Champions Trophy match with Varun Chakraborty (five wickets for 42 wickets), defeating New Zealand by 44 runs here on Sunday to top Group A.
The teams of India and New Zealand had already reached the semi -finals but India’s victory was decided by the semi -finals. India will face Australia on Tuesday and South Africa will be challenged in front of New Zealand on Wednesday.
India dismissed New Zealand for 205 runs in 45.3 overs after scoring 249 for nine with the help of a half -century innings of Shreyas Iyer (79) when he was invited to bat first. For New Zealand, Williamson played an 81 -run struggle in 120 balls but did not get the support of the batsman who scored a fast run from the other end.
Chakraborty’s spin had no answer to New Zealand batsmen. He is the third Indian bowler to take five wickets after Ravindra Jadeja (2013) and Mohammed Shami (2025) in the Champions Trophy. Kuldeep Yadav got two success while Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel took one wicket each.
Earlier, Matt Henry took five wickets for 42 runs in eight overs. He got the other bowlers of the team well. For New Zealand, Kyle Jeemison, William O’Arki, Captain Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra took one wicket each. New Zealand fielders saved crucial runs with some amazing catch.
India had lost three wickets for 30 runs in the first seven overs, but Iyer played a 79 -run innings with the help of four fours and two sixes in the 98 -ball innings, besides Akshar Patel (42), a 98 -ball shared in 136 balls for the fourth wicket with Akshar Patel (42), and the team overcome 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 a 61 -ball innings. In the last over, Hardik Pandya scored 45 runs with the help of four fours and two sixes in 45 balls and brought the team to close to 250 runs. New Zealand began to chase the target by recovering in the help of spinners, but Rachin (six) caught the Akshar in an attempt to play an aggressive shot ball on the ball, taking a bounce of Pandya.
Williamson opened an account against Mohammed Shami with a fidelity fours. He also welcomed Chakravarti for bowling in the ninth over with fours, but this Abuja spinner finished the innings of 22 runs in 35 balls of Will Young in his next over.
Deril Mitchell, who came to the crease, took 10 balls to open the account. Indian spinners began to tighten the screws but Williamson reduced the four root pressure against the letter. Mitchell also drew the boundary of Akshar ball in the next over. Kuldeep lbw Mitchell before this partnership was dangerous. Mitchell took a review against the decision of the ground umpire but did not benefit.
Tom Latham (14), who was looking for rhythm, was fabricated by Jadeja in an attempt to reverse sweep, while Glenn Philips (12) harassed the Indian camp against Chakraborty, but this bowler strengthened Michael Bracewell at the match at the beginning of the next over after showing him the way to the pavilion.
Batting restrained with Williamson from one end, tried to keep the scoreboard moving, but due to the frequent collapse of wickets, the distance of the remaining runs and the remaining balls is increasing rapidly. Williamson came out of the crease to play a big shot, but Akshar Patel’s ball completely missed and Rahul made no mistake in the gills.
Captain Santner tried to continue the team’s struggle by hitting sixes against Kuldeep and Varun, but Chakraborty bowled them and almost confirmed India’s victory. He completed his five wickets by dismissing Henry (two).
On receiving the first batting, Rohit Sharma hit a four and six against Matt Henry in an aggressive manner, but this fast bowler gave Shubman Gill (two) to India’s first blow. Rohit (15) returned to the pavilion by catching Young in an attempt to play a big shot against Jamison.
Virat Kohli, who scored an unbeaten century against Pakistan, failed to play a big innings in his 300th ODI. In the direction of the point off Henry’s ball, Glenn Philips caught a brilliant catch and finished his 11 runs in 14 balls.
After losing three wickets for 30 runs in the seventh over, Shreyas Iyer and Akshar Patel batted vigilantly and took the team’s score to 46 runs. Akshar ended the drought of 52 balls of the boundary by hitting a four against the centner. In the next over, Iyer tried to bring the rungi back on track by putting three fours against O’Rauki.
The team completed its century in the 25th over, which Iyer celebrated with a brilliant fours against Bracewell. Iyer and Akshar were now not having any problem in stealing runs against New Zealand spinners.
Iyer completed his half -century in 75 balls with a run against Rachin, which is the slowest Pachasa of his ODI career. Akshar hit a brilliant six off the Bracewell ball but failed to reconcile with Rachin’s excess bounce and the ball went into Williamson’s hands with the upper edge of his bat.
In the next over, Rahul opened his hand against the bowler with fours, while Iyer hit sixes against Ravindra and O’Rauki.
O’Reurki, however, gave India a big blow by dismissing Iyer in the 37th over. Rahul once again failed to turn a good start into a big innings.
Ravindra Jadeja shouted against Bracewell in the 41st over, while the same Hardik Pandya took the six -run team close to 200 runs, but Williamson diverted a six -hand in Henry’s ball to hold a brilliant catch with a left hand and put a break on Jadeja’s 20 balls in 20 balls.
Pandya scored 15 runs from the over by hitting two fours and sixs against Jamison in the 49th over, but in the last over, he returned to the pavilion by catching Ravindra on Henry’s slow bouncer. Henry completed his five wickets by dismissing Shami (05) on the last ball of the innings.
Also read this: New Zealand wasted in Varun Chakraborty’s ‘cyclone’, entry from swag in the semi -finals, who will compete with?
