New Zealand beat India by 18 runs to reach their second consecutive World Cup final

New Zealand beat India by 18 runs in a nail-biting semi-final to reach the World Cup final for the second consecutive time. New Zealand’s Matt Henry was declared the man of the match for taking three wickets to defend a low score on board.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat first. Indian bowlers did a good job in restricting New Zealand to 239-8 in 50 overs. Skipper Kane Williamson scored 67 runs and Ross Taylor scored 74 at a crucial moment. Together they notched up their 30th 50 run partnership for which is the highest by any New Zealand pair.

In reply, New Zealand bowlers took four early wickets with the new ball. India’s batting order collapsed after their top three batsmen Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were dismissed for one run each. Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya played a good inning but both were dismissed for 32 runs each by Mitchell Santner.

MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja played superbly to take India from 92-6 to 208-7 but after the left-handed all-rounder was dismissed for 77 runs it was looking difficult for India to chase down the target. MS Dhoni reached his fifty but was dismissed run-out by Martin Guptill and that proved to be a match-winning moment for New Zealand.

Also read: Virat Kohli was dismissed for a single-digit score in his last two World Cup semi-final