By Karan Agrawal 
India registered a hard-fought win against New Zealand in their last group match of the Champions Trophy. The Rohit Sharma led side topped Group A with this win and will now take on Australia in the first semi final in Dubai on March 4. Batting first after losing the toss, India got off to a shaky start as the trio of Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli was dismissed in the first six over courtesy of a stunning one-handed catch by Glenn Phillips, leaving India meandering at 30/3. The Men In Blue were in desperate need of a partnership from Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel, and the duo did not disappoint as they added 98 runs for the fourth wicket, taking India’s score to 128/3.
The Partnership
If we talk about the partnership, both Iyer and Axar started cautiously and saw off testing spells by Matt Henry and Kyle Jamieson, who picked the first three Indian wickets to fall and were bowling accurately in the first powerplay. Once New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner took off the new ball bowlers, Axar and Iyer decided to attack William O’Rourke, who came to bowl after Henry by pushing the balls into the gaps to rotate the strike and pick up odd boundaries. Iyer, in particular, was more aggressive of the two as he took on the New Zealand spinners in the middle overs and ensured that the scoring rate was kept in check, with Axar giving him good support at the other end.
The Comeback
The duo took India to safety before Michaell Bracwell dismissed Axar, who attempted to chip the ball over the head of the fielder positioned at shot fine leg but only managed to hit it straight into the hands of Kane Williamson, who took a regulation catch. Iyer who was batting effortlessly at one end continued in his usual manner and completed a well deserved half century and added crucial runs for the fifth wicket with KL Rahul who walked in after the fall of Axar’s wickets before getting out after playing a sensible knock of 79 runs which took India near the 200 run mark.
The Effort
The twin strikes, followed by the wicket of KL Rahul, dented India’s hopes of crossing the 280 run mark which was considered a winning score on a slow wicket in Dubai, and it was Hardik’s knock of run a ball 45 in the death overs that took India to a fighting score of 249 runs. As far as New Zealand’s bowling is concerned, fast bowler Matt Henry was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers as he ended up picking up five wickets and was well supported by other bowlers like Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke, Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell and Rachin Ravindra who picked up the crucial wicket of Axar Patel.
The Chase
Chasing 250 runs to win, New Zealand got off to a slow start as the Mitchell Santner-led side lost openers Rachin Ravindran and Will Young early, which made the chase a bit tricky on a wicket that was assisting the Indian spinners. Daryl Mitchell who has been in decent form found it difficult to rotate strike in the middle overs as the quartret of Indian spinners kept on pilling the pressure courtesy of some good bowling in the second powerplay, Williamson who was batting well in the first ten overs also felt the pressure of the dip in scoring rate and was compelled to look for boundaries and he succeeded in hitting a boundary in the 19th over but withy Mitchell struggling at the other Williamson had to do the bulk of the scoring at a good rate.
The Performance
The inability to rotate the strike got the better of Mitchell, who was dismissed after scoring 17 runs off 35 balls. With the required run rate over six runs per over New Zealand found themselves playing the waiting game on a slow wicket which the Indian spinners made full use of and were led by Varun Chakravarthy who picked up a five wicket haul on his Champions Trophy debut and was well supported by Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja all of who picked up crucial wickets.