Cricket World Cup

Matt Henry of New Zealand appeals for the wicket of Lahiru Thirimanne of Sri Lanka during the Group Stage match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Cardiff Wales Stadium on June 1, 2019 in Cardiff, Wales. PHOTO: ICC MEDIA ZONE

Black Caps break India hearts with CWC semifinal upset

New Zealand earned an 18 run win over India to book their place in a second successive Cricket World Cup final.

Cricket World Cup

Matt Henry of New Zealand appeals for the wicket of Lahiru Thirimanne of Sri Lanka during the Group Stage match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at Cardiff Wales Stadium on June 1, 2019 in Cardiff, Wales. PHOTO: ICC MEDIA ZONE

India received the backing of Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis ahead of their semi-final with New Zealand and it seems it transferred South Africa’s World Cup luck to Virat Kohli’s men.

After play was rained off on the scheduled match day proceedings were deferred to Wednesday and the Kiwis batting effort transferred over to a second day.

India were tasked with chasing down 240, a target that appeared to be well within reach of the batting juggernaut but the Black Caps bowlers turned up the heat.

Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor powered New Zealand to a competitive score with dogged fifties but the heroes were the Black Caps quicks.

Superb bowling from Matt Henry and Trent Boult up top saw India fall to 5/3, then 24/4 and it looked like the semi-final would be a total blow out but then Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant led an India revival.

Kiwi tweaker Mitchell Santner put paid to the pair’s resurrection but the chase was far from over as the lower order fought on.

Ravindra Jadeja (77) fell in pursuit of quick runs at the death before the run out of MS Dhoni (50) put the Black Caps firmly in control.

Henry was named man of the match for his efforts with the ball ending with figures of 3/37 from his ten overs. India crumbled to 221 all out suffering an 18 run defeat and exiting the World Cup.

Speaking after the match Henry said: “Look, we talked about just making we do the best we can and play the way we can. He started out with the ball and just tried to create pressure. We just had to ask a lot of questions against the best batting line-up. I thought we managed to scrap it out. We had the belief – we knew we had to bowl well. Obviously, they are world-class batsmen – Hardik, Dhoni and Jadeja – we knew to win the game we had to get them out. It’s very special and thanks to the New Zealand supporters out there.”

India skipper Kohli was understandably gutted.

“Yes, it was. The first half we were spot on,” said Kohli.

We got what we needed in the field. We knew we had a good day yesterday, we felt like we had the moment, but the credit has to go to NZ bowlers. The swing and help they got from the surface – the skill from them was on display. Jaddu had an outstanding couple of games. He went with so much clarity, MS had a good partnership with him. It was a game of margins and MS was run-out. 45 minutes of bad cricket puts you out of the tournament. Difficult to take it – but New Zealand deserve it. Our shot selection could have been better, but we played a good standard of cricket throughout. New Zealand were braver in crunch situations and they deserve it “

New Zealand face the winners of the second semi-final, played tomorrow between Australia and England, in Sunday’s final.