New Zealand has almost confirmed its place in the ODI World Cup semi-finals with a big win over Sri Lanka. The team defeated Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in 23.2 overs on Thursday and made its run rate much higher than Pakistan and Afghanistan.
With New Zealand's win it has also become clear that India will face the Kiwi team in the first semi-final. The match will be held on November 15 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from 2 pm.
New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka and increased its run rate to +0.743. In the race for the knockout, Pakistan's run rate is +0.036 and Afghanistan's run rate is -0.338. In such a situation, only if Pakistan wins by 287 runs or Afghanistan wins by 438 runs, they will be able to reach the semi-finals. Pakistan's match will be against England and Afghanistan's match will be against South Africa. Both teams have never lost by such a big margin in history, so New Zealand's play in the semi-finals is 99% confirmed.
India and New Zealand will meet in the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup for the second consecutive time. Earlier in 2019 also, the first semi-final of the tournament took place between these two teams. Even then India was the topper of the points table and New Zealand was at number-4, this time too the situation will be the same. In 2019, New Zealand won the semi-final match played on Manchester grounds by 18 runs.
New Zealand's stay at number-4 is also confirmed because South Africa and Australia, occupying number-2 and number-3, have 12-12 points. New Zealand has 10 points and all the matches of the team have ended, so now the team cannot reach 12 points and come in the top-3 position. Semi-final 2 between Australia and South Africa will be held on November 16 at Kolkata.
India and New Zealand will meet for the fourth time in the knockouts of the ICC tournament. Before this, both the teams met thrice in the knockouts of different tournaments and every time New Zealand won. Apart from the 2019 World Cup, both of them also faced each other in the 2000 Champions Trophy and 2021 World Test Championship finals.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had made it clear even before the start of the tournament that if hosts India reached the semi-finals, then their match would be in Mumbai. India has made it to the knockouts for the first time. That is why the match between New Zealand and India will be held at Wankhede Stadium only.
If the semi-finals cannot be held on November 15 due to rain or any other reason, then the match will be held on November 16 on the reserve day. If the result is not achieved even on this day, then India will be considered the winner on the basis of topping the points table.
There is a tough competition between India and New Zealand in all three formats of cricket. So far there have been 109 matches between the two teams in ODIs. New Zealand has won 50 and India has won 59. 7 matches have been inconclusive and one match has also been tied.
New Zealand has always dominated India in the ODI World Cup. The team did not allow India to win a single World Cup match after 2003 till 2019, but this time India settled the score and defeated New Zealand on the ground of Dharamshala. The team defeated New Zealand in the World Cup match after 20 years. In this match, Mohammed Shami took 5 wickets and Virat Kohli scored 95 runs.
There were 10 matches between the two teams in the World Cup. New Zealand won 5 and India won 4. Whereas in the league stage of 2019, a match between the two was also inconclusive.
There is a tough competition between the two teams in the World Cup and ODI, but Team India becomes very dangerous on home ground. There were 39 matches between the two teams in India, out of which India could win only 30 and New Zealand could win only 8. One match also remained inconclusive.
In the 1987 World Cup, 2 group stage matches were played between India and New Zealand. India won by 16 runs in Bengaluru and by 9 wickets in Nagpur. Now this time both the teams faced each other in the World Cup in Dharamshala, India won the match here also by 4 wickets. This means that Team India has the upper hand in both the bilateral series at home and the World Cup.
Host India had trouble registering victory against Australia in the very first match. In front of the target of 200 runs, the team had lost 3 wickets for 2 runs. But here KL Rahul and Virat Kohli made an excellent partnership and helped the team win by 6 wickets.
After winning the first match, Team India started to dominate and registered one-sided victories over Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Team India's last league match will be against Netherlands on November 12 in Bengaluru.
Also Read: Team India No.1 in ICC Men's Test Rankings
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