This is India's third successive defeat to a team from Australia in an elite ICC-organised tournament after the ICC World Test Championship final 2023 and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.
This is Australia's fourth title in the ICC Men's U19 Cricket World Cup, adding to the titles they had previously won in 1988, 2002 and 2010. Five-time winners India finished runner-up for the fourth time in their ninth appearance in the final.
Pacer Mahli Beardman and off-break bowler Raf MacMillan claimed three wickets apiece for 15 and 43 runs respectively while Callum Vidler scalped two wickets for 35 runs in 10 wickets as India, chasing a target of 254, were bowled out for 174 in 43.5 overs, losing their first match in the event.
Australia dominated in all three departments of the game, as they recovered from a bad start to post 253/7 in 50 overs thanks to Harjas Singh top-scored with 55, while Weibgen, Harry Dixon and Ollie Peak contributed with important 40s.
India's chase was off to a shambolic start as they lost four batters within the first 20 overs.
Among those dismissed were Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan, and Sachin Dhas, their three top run-getters in the tournament. Australia kept chipping away and picked four more wickets between overs 21-32. Despite the late charge from Abhishek Murugan (42 off 46), an Australia win was a mere formality, and they sealed the game in the 44th over.
India were rattled early in their chase when Arshin Kulkarni nicked one behind the wicket. Adarsh Singh (47 off 77) and Musheer Khan, the highest run-scorer in this event with two centuries, then proceeded cautiously. Merely two fours came in the first Powerplay. Musheer (22) began playing more adventurous strokes after the first 10 overs. However, he played on a Mahli Beardman delivery for 22.
Beardman had another big scalp when he dismissed India skipper Uday Saharan for 8. The batter tried to force the ball past offside but found his opposite number Weibgen at the backward point. India's hopes were further dented when Sachin Dhas (8) edged one behind the stumps off Raf MacMillan.
Soon Priyanshu Moliya and Aravelly Avanish were dismissed without adding much to the total. When Adarsh Singh, who fought with a resilient 47, was dismissed by Beardman, the writing was on the wall for India. Abhishek Murugan scored a feisty 42, but it was too late for his side.
Earlier, pacers Raj Limbani and Naman Tiwari shared five wickets between them as India U19 restricted Australia to 253/7 despite a fighting half-century by middle-order batter Harjas Singh.
Harjas struck a 64-ball 55 and near half-centuries by opener Harry Dixon (42), skipper Hugh Weibgen (48) and Oliver Peake (46 not out) helped Australia U19 reach 253/7 in 50 overs, the highest-ever total in a U19 World Cup final. Limbani starred for India with 3-38 while Naman Tiwari bagged 3-63 as India applied breaks to the Australian innings at appropriate moments.
Harry Dixon was off to a belligerent start, taking 15 runs off Tiwari's first over. However, Limbani struck the first blow for India, making one to swerve in and castled Sam Konstas in the third over. India soon switched to spin and managed to stem the scoring rate in the first Powerplay.
Dixon and Weibgen were watchful against the spinners at the start of the middle overs, while also calmly milking runs to keep the scoreboard ticking. The overs 11-20 saw Australia score 42 runs, with boundaries easing in towards the end of that period. A return to pace yielded immediate results in the 21st over, as Tiwari dispatched Weibgen for 48.
The left-armer struck again in his next over, this time getting the better of Dixon. The slower ball outfoxed the southpaw, and he popped it towards Abhishek Murugan -- Australia down to 99/3 in the 23rd over.
Harjas Singh and Ryan Hicks then rebuilt for Australia with a patient stand. Harjas, who had scored merely 49 runs in the tournament thus far, opened his arms against the spin of Priyanshu Moliya, hitting a six and four in the 28th over. He hit a flurry of boundaries thereafter as the duo raised 66 runs for the fourth wicket.
Hicks was eventually trapped leg before by Limbani for 20, but Australia were progressing at a healthy run rate. Harjas punched a Tiwari full toss down the ground in the 37th over to bring his maiden fifty of the U19 World Cup -- reaching the milestone off 59 deliveries, hitting three boundaries and an equal number of maximums.
Saumy Pandey struck back for India by getting Harjas soon after. The batter tried to sweep Pandey towards the on-side but missed and was trapped plumb leg before.
Ollie Peake's positive intent helped Australia craft their total past 200 even as India's bowlers kept chipping away. Australia eventually added 66 off the last 10 overs.
Brief scores:
Australia U19 253/7 in 50 overs (Harjas Singh 55, Hugh Weibgen 48, Oliver Peake 46 not out, Harry Dixon 42; Raj Limbani 3-38, Naman Tiwari 2-63) beat India U19 174 all out in 43.5 overs (Adarsh Singh 47, Murugan Abhishek 42; Mahli Beardman 3-15, Raf MacMillan 3-43, Callum Vidler 2-35) by 79 runs.
The event, which saw Australia crowned champions for the sixth time, registered a record 1 trillion global live viewing minutes of broadcast, which included new technological innovations such as the vertical video feed, providing fans with an easier and more intuitive viewing experience on their mobile devices.
The global live viewing hours were an increase of 38% from the last edition of the tournament held in the Indian sub-continent, in 2011, and by 17% compared to 2019 when it was held in the United Kingdom.
The final between India and Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the biggest cricket stadium in the world, became the most watched ICC match ever. There were 87.6 billion live viewing minutes globally, representing a 46% growth compared with the 2011 final that featured co-hosts India and Sri Lanka.
The event was carried by a total of 20 broadcast partners across 209 territories. For the first time, Hindi coverage was made available outside India by ESPN+, Fox Sports, Sky Sports and Willow TV.
ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said: “We are delighted to announce the record-breaking viewership and engagement numbers for the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, making it the biggest World Cup ever. The incredible numbers continue to show the increased appetite for ICC events across the world and the consumption of innovative and engaging content that fans can enjoy.”
The viewership numbers are staggering across territories, most notably in host country India, where it became the most watched Cricket World Cup ever, with 422 billion viewing minutes on the Disney Star Network alone, resulting in a whopping 54% increase from 2011 and a significant 9% rise from 2019.
The tournament was the most broadcast in India, about five times more hours of coverage compared to 2011, thanks to the 22 channels that showcased the tournament across nine different languages (English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam).
The female viewership share rose from 32% for the 2011 edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup to 34% this year, reflecting the universal excitement surrounding the country’s home tournament. The final between the hosts and Australia became the most watched Men’s Cricket World Cup match ever with a peak TV audience of 130 million, with a total of 300 million people watching it on the Disney Star network on linear alone in India.
The 2023 edition was also the most broadcast tournament in the United Kingdom and Australia that saw huge jumps in viewership compared to 2011 when it was played in the same time zone.
The UK saw 800 hours of live coverage and 5.86 billion minutes (of live viewing compared to 4.74 billion minutes) in 2011, a 24% increase. In Australia, there were 602 hours of live coverage with 3.79 billion minutes of live viewing, 92% more than the 1.98 billion minutes recorded in 2011.
Coupled with Australia’s success, this led to significant increase in overall audience with 9.1 million people watching India 2023 compared to the 2019 edition in England and Wales which saw 6.1 million tune in.
Pakistan saw record viewership with 237.10 billion viewing minutes of live viewing. The corresponding figures were 230.49 billion minutes in 2019 and 220.63 billion minutes in 2011.
The 2023 edition was the most shown World Cup in South Africa and saw a 32% increase in viewership from 2019 with 5.01 billion minutes of live coverage watched.
Similar was the case in the United States, where 395 hours of live coverage made it the most broadcast Cricket World Cup, the coverage hours rising 14% from 2019. The final was the most watched match with 48 million live viewing minutes, 47% more than the second most watched (India vs Pakistan). Nine of the 10 most watched games in the US featured India.
The decision to make coverage freely available for mobile users via Disney+ Hotstar in India led to a whopping 295 million LIVE Tournament viewers tuning in. Across the event, there were five world records broken on Disney+ Hotstar for digital peak concurrency, with the final attracting cricket’s highest concurrent audience ever, having already made history at four other 2023 World Cup matches.
Despite all the achievements, Gill is still sad after India’s loss to Australia in the World Cup 2023 Final. In a recent media interaction, the talented batsman said that the loss somewhat dampened his mood.
However, he promised that he would improve the situations in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“I think it’s been a great year for me but having to miss out on the World Cup obviously dampened the mood a bit, but fortunately we have another World Cup coming up next year so we are all looking forward to it,” Shubman told CNBC-TV 18.
He further added, “In the next one year, there is the World Cup coming, a very important Test series coming up in Australia, and I think this year is not over yet, we have the Test Series, coming up in South Africa as well. I think the Test Series in Australia and the South Africa are going to be really big ones and those are the matches I am really looking forward to.”
On the other hand, Gill will take over Gujarat Titans after the departure of all-rounder Hardik Pandya who rejoined Mumbai Indians. Gill will lead the GT team as the skipper while Afghanistan star Rashid Khan will be his vice-captain.
Shami's mother became unwell unexpectedly, displaying feverish symptoms and a sense of discomfort. She was taken to a nearby hospital and her health condition improved after getting treatment.
The Indian bowler recently took his official X account and shared an adorable photo with his mother.
"You mean so much to me Mum. Hope you’re feeling better very soon," Shami wrote.
Mohammed Shami was outstanding with the ball throughout the World Cup and played an instrumental role for India to reach the final of World Cup 2023. He ended the tournament with 24 scalps to his name at an average of 10.71.
However, despite an outstanding performance throughout the tournament, Team India stumbled on the final hurdle in their quest for World Cup glory.
The Rohit Sharma-led team were bowled out for 240 before Australia strode to a six-wicket win in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19.
Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Bangar made bold prediction about Virat Kohli’s cricketing future.
“The kind of hunger Kohli has individually, is a blessing of God. He still has something special left in him. Even Sachin (Tendulkar) has to wait for 6 World Cups to win his first title”.
Bangar said that almighty is testing the 35-year-old Kohli and making him wait for the ‘gold medal’.
During the World Cup 2023, from getting his 50th ODI International century to scoring the maximum runs in World Cups, Kohli broke plethora of records which shows his passion and commitment towards the game which he loves playing.
During all the 11 games, his noteworthy performance came against New Zealand in the semi finals where he scored a scintillating 117 in front of more than 85k people at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This knock will remain one of the high points in his cricketing career which is spanned over 14 years
In 11 games, Kohli amassed 765 runs at an average of 95.62, with three hundreds and six half-centuries. However, despite his best efforts, India ended up as runners-up in the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad after losing to Australia by six wickets in World Cup final.
Rahul Lohar, 23, took the extreme step near a cinema hall around 11 pm on Sunday in Beliatore police station area of Bankura, following India’s six-wicket loss to Australia in Ahmedabad, they said.
Heartbroken by the result, he hung himself in his room, Lohar’s brother-in-law Uttam Sur said, according to police.
His body was sent to the Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital on Monday morning for post-mortem examination, a police officer said, adding, a case of unnatural death was registered.
In Odisha’s Jajpur, another 23-year-old man was found hanging from the terrace of his house at Binjharpur area shortly after the match on Sunday night, police said.
The deceased, Dev Ranjan Das, had been undergoing treatment for “emotional disorder syndrome”, his uncle told the police.
After India lost the final, he left home in despair, the family member said.
“We have registered an unnatural death case, and are awaiting the autopsy report,” said Indramani Juanga, Officer-in-Charge of Jari Outpost.
Travis Head top-scored with 62, before Steven Smith (30), Josh Inglis (28), Mitchell Starc (16 not out) and captain Pat Cummins (14 not out) thwarted the valiant challenge from South Africa to march into their eighth Men’s ODI World Cup final, where they will take on India in a replay of the 2003 edition finale.
Keeping nearly 50,00 fans on the edge of their seats, South Africa’s spinners asked all sorts of questions but they failed to latch on their chances, along with some field placements which left a lot to be desired, leading to another semi-final heartbreak for them.
Australia’s efforts meant David Miller’s gritty century in the first innings went in vain, as Quinton de Kock’s ODI career came to an end. Chasing 213, Travis Head and David Warner were off to a flying start by hitting two boundaries each in the first four overs. The duo then took 15 runs off Marco Jansen in the fifth over, including two fours and a six, to keep Australia going.
Warner tore into Kagiso Rabada in the next over, hitting him for three sixes, included lapping him over backward square leg for six on the free-hit delivery. But Aiden Markram struck on his first ball of the night by castling Warner. Mitchell Marsh was sent back for a six-ball duck by Rabada as Rassie van der Dussen made a full dive to take a blinder of a catch.
Head had a reprieve when substitute Reeza Hendricks dropped his catch at deep point off Gerald Coetzee, who was hit for two fours by the left-handed batter. Head would get his fifty by pulling Coetzee for four and had another life when Heinrich Klassen couldn’t hang on to a tough chance at slip off Tabraiz Shamsi.
Keshav Maharaj, the top-ranked ODI bowler, struck on his very first ball by turning enough to castle Maharaj through the gate. Marnus Labuschagne survived an lbw appeal off Shamsi, but replays showed umpire’s call on impact despite ball hitting the stumps. It was Smith’s turn to get a reprieve when Quinton de Kock dropped a tough chance off Shamsi.
But Shamsi eventually got Labuschagne when the right-handed batter was trapped lbw on a reverse-sweep against a delivery which turned in sharply and review showed the ball was clipping leg stump. Shamsi came back to knock off Glenn Maxwell’s leg-stump with a quicker delivery, a dismissal which reminded many of the way Kuldeep Yadav took the batter out in Chennai.
Smith and Inglis hanged around to hit three boundaries between themselves, but the former after playing an uncharacteristic hoick on a short ball and was caught by de Kock off Coetzee. With his crouched stance and low backlift, Inglis hanged around with Starc before being castled by a straight delivery from Coetzee.
South Africa fought hard, but burnt their second review when Coetzee trapped Cummins in front of stumps, but replays showed ball pitching outside leg. There was more tension when Markram created a half-chance and dismissal chance, but Bavuma and de Kock couldn’t latch on to it. Starc whipped through mid-wicket off Jansen for four, before Cummins finished off the tense chase with a steer past backward point for a boundary.
Earlier, Miller stood tall with a fighting century, the first hundred by a South Africa batter in the Men’s ODI World Cup knockouts, to take the Proteas to 212. Electing to bat first under overcast skies, South Africa were rocked by Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc to be reduced to 24/4.
Miller then soaked in pressure and hanged around to make 101 off 116 balls, hitting eight fours and five sixes, getting a standing ovation from the crowd. Miller's century is also the first ton by someone batting at number six or lower in a Men's ODI World Cup knockout match.
He stitched a 95-run stand with Klassen and was severe on leg-spinner Adam Zampa, against whom he slammed all of his sixes in Thursday’s match. In the afternoon, Australia's new ball pairing of Starc and Josh Hazlewood did the damage by swinging the ball both ways to leave South Africa in tatters. Captain Temba Bavuma, who was not at 100% fitness, edged behind for a four-ball duck off Starc in the opening over.
De Kock ran out of patience and went for a wild slog to break free, but he was caught brilliantly by a back-pedalling Cummins off Hazlewood. Markram edged to backward point off Starc while van der Dussen’s loose drive ended in the hands of second slip, as Australia were in driver’s seat straightaway.
Cummins was superb in keeping Starc and Hazlewood relentlessly, as well as ground fielding being impressive, kept two slips consistently to keep the pressure on - meaning South Africa took 52 balls to score their first boundary. South Africa were 44/4 in 14 overs before rain interrupted play for 35 minutes.
Post resumption, it appeared that the pitch has eased out. Miller landed opening punches by clearing his leg and smacking Zampa for a couple of sixes over mid-wicket fence. It was Klaasen’s turn to cash on against Zampa, pulling him twice over mid-wicket for two sixes, before Miller smacked a full-toss over the same region for another maximum.
Klaasen lofted and flat-batted Head for back-to-back fours, before the part-time spinner bounced back by castling the right-handed batter and had Jansen lbw the very next ball to put South Africa in trouble again. Miller brought up his fifty with a cut past point off Maxwell for four.
With Coetzee giving him some support, Miller peppered mid-wicket to down the ground arc with boundaries. The 53-run stand came to an end when Coetzee gloved a pull off Maxwell behind, only for replay to show it missed the glove.
After Maharaj toe-ended to mid-off, Miller pulled thrice, last of which went for six, to get him his hundred. But right after reaching three-figure mark, Miller pulled straight to mid-wicket off Cummins, before Rabada holed out to long-on to end South Africa’s innings at 212.
Brief Scores: South Africa 212 in 49.4 overs (David Miller 101, Heinrich Klaasen 47; Mitchell Starc 3-34, Pat Cummins 3-51) lost to Australia 215/7 in 47.2 overs (Travis Head 62, Steven Smith 30; Tabraiz Shamsi 2-42, Gerald Coetzee 2-47) by three wickets
(Except for the headline, this story, from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by Odishatv.in staff)
Taking about India’s performance, there can’t be a fairy tale performance as they have won all 9 games in the league stages. The team’s morale is high and all the players are confident of performing well in the big stage.
On the other side, New Zealand had a mixed World Cup having 5 wins and 4 losses, but Ravindra’s form and Boult’s experience are the few positives going to the Semi Final against India in Mumbai.
Teams:
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand Playing XI: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson(c), Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tom Latham(w), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
More to follow…..
After Bangladesh rode on a patient 74 by Towhid Hridoy to post an impressive 306/8 in 50 overs, Marsh, Australia's number three slammed 26 boundaries including nine sixes in his inspired century, lighting up the second innings of the match and bringing Australia's group stage to a spectacular close.
Marsh’s effort, along with a half-century from David Warner and good support from Steve Smith saw the Aussies make easy work of a demanding chase, sending the five-time World Champions into the semifinals full of confidence.
With this defeat, Bangladesh finished their campaign in the tournament on four points and their chances of qualifying for the Champions Trophy now hinge on the Netherlands' result against India.
On Saturday, Australia's top-order strength was on full display in Pune as they made short work of what could have been a challenging total.
Australia lost a wicket early on in the chase when Travis Head played on while trying to take on Taskin Ahmed. The ball took an inside edge and kissed his stumps before rolling back to the keeper.
However, Mitchell Marsh lifted Australia. Dealing primarily in boundaries, the all-rounder ensured Australia went ahead closer to seven runs an over.
The Bangladesh spinners temporarily slowed down the scoring rate, with David Warner taking his time to get going as runs flowed at the other end.
Marsh brought up his half-century off just 37 balls. And Warner followed to his own 50 off 52 balls, kicking on after getting his eye in against the spinners.
Australia's dominant start to their chase hit a bump when Warner, who had begun to get bogged down, clipped a catch to Najmul Hossain Shanto off Mustafizur Rahman for 53 from 61.
But, with Marsh still out in the middle and playing beautifully, Australia were always in control. Marsh launched his attack in style. Supported by the returning Smith, Marsh muscled his way to an outstanding 177 not out from just 132 balls, smashing nine sixes in his phenomenal innings.
He completed his century off 87 balls, hitting 11 fours and four sixes as Australia raced past 200 runs. Marsh blazed to 150 off 117 balls, hitting 16 boundaries and seven maximums.
Smith, who had missed the last match for Australia, held up the other end as he completed his fifty in 55 balls. With Marsh and Smith sharing an unbeaten 175-run partnership, Australia romped to an eight-wicket victory.
Earlier, Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bowl first in Pune, before confirming that match-winning hero Glenn Maxwell had been handed a well-earned rest to get himself back into peak condition for the knockout stages.
Mitchell Starc was also absent from the XI, with Steve Smith and Sean Abbott coming into the team.
A classy half-century from Tawhid Hridoy helped Bangladesh amass 306/8 against Australia which might have been much more but for Marnus Labuschagne's impact in the field.
Bangladesh's top five batters each made at least 30 but only Hridoy (74) could turn a start into a fifty as Australia were able to make the most of some outstanding fielding to prevent their opponents from taking command.
Labuschagne had a direct hand in four of Australia's dismissals including the stunning run outs of Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mahmudullah Riyad that broke up a pair of ominous stands.
Stand-in skipper Shanto (45) was the first to test Labuschagne's arm when looking for a second run but fell agonisingly short despite a last-gasp dive.
In-form veteran Mahmudullah (32) was caught out of his crease soon after when attempting a quick single as Labuschagne swooped on the ball and threw down the stumps in one action that included a dive.
Bangladesh were still able to amass a strong total with Hridoy the top scorer and useful contributions throughout the batting group.
Australia pacer Sean Abbott (2/61) claimed a wicket in his Cricket World Cup debut to end the first budding partnership between Bangladesh openers Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das.
Shanto then joined forces with Hridoy to guide Bangladesh to 161/2 at the halfway mark of the innings and leave the match evenly poised.
After Labuschagne struck twice to run out Shanto and Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim (21) looked solid until caught trying to lift the run rate as Zampa claimed outright first place for the most wickets at the Cricket World Cup thus far.
Bangladesh were able to pass 300 and push toward their highest total of the tournament while Australia picked up regular wickets at the death to ensure it was a target they would still be confident of reaching.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 306/8 in 50 overs (Towhid Hridoy 74, Najmul Hossain Shanto 45, Tanzid Hasan 36, Litton Das 36; Sean Abbott 2/61, Adam Zampa 2/32) lost to Australia 307/2 in 44.4 overs (Mitchell Marsh 177 not out, Steve Smith 63, David Warner 53; Taskin Ahmed 1-61) by eight wickets.
(Except for the headline, this story, from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by Odishatv.in staff)
The talented cricketer who has often been a victim of trolls is now one of the most loved players of Team India. He has been winning hearts for his tremendous contribution to the team and clap-worthy performances.
While fans are in awe of his charisma on the field, an actress has gone to the extent of proposing marriage. Impressed with his bowling, actress-turned-politician Payal Ghosh has expressed her desire to marry the pace bowler.
#Shami Tum apna English sudharlo, I’m ready to marry you 🤣🤣
— Payal Ghoshॐ (@iampayalghosh) November 2, 2023
Taking to her social media account, Payal expressed her wish to marry Shami and wrote, “Shami tum apna English sudharlo, I’m ready to marry you.” Since being tweeted, Payal’s tweet has gone viral with hilarious replies from his fans.
“But he will not marry you because you are not eligible for him. 😂😂😂” commented a fan. Another fan wrote, “He would be fine with bad English. He wishes to live longer and serve Indian Cricket.”
“Shami jo kaam kar rahe hai usme unhe dekhiye. Baki English to Rahul Gandhi ko bhi aati hai par kya kaam,” shared another fan.
For the unversed, Payal was born in 1992 in Kolkata and has graduated in Political Science from Scottish Church College. She wanted to become an actress and has worked in several films like Prayanam, Varshadhaare, Oosaravelli, Mr. Rascal, Patel ki Punjabi Shaadi.
Later, she stepped out of movies and joined politics. She joined Ramdas Athawale’s political party where she was appointed as the vice president of Ramdas Athawale’s party’s women’s wing.
Speaking about Shami’s marriage, he was married to Hasin Jahan and have a baby girl together. However, their marriage hit turmoil after Hasin filed a case against Shami for infidelity, match-fixing and domestic violence. The charges which are yet to be proved.
The BCCI has sought the copy of the FIR in reply to the Kolkata Police’s notice to the board on November 5 seeking information on the process followed in online marketing of tickets.
“The BCCI has replied to our notice on Tuesday evening seeking the copy of the FIR registered in the matter. The board authorities have claimed that going through the contents of the FIR will make things easier for them to reply to the queries made by us in the matter. We have sent them a copy of the FIR in the matter on Wednesday morning,” he said.
The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), whose officials were questioned by the officers at the Maidan Police Station last week, denied any kind of responsibility in the matter, since the association is in no way involved with the marketing of tickets which is being done through an online agency.
The city police also questioned the officials of the online ticket marketing entity and they said that they would need more time to reply to the queries on this count in detail.
The matter of ticket black marketing first surfaced after the police on November 1 evening arrested an individual red-handed while trying to sell tickets for the India-South Africa match scheduled on November 5.
Later, an individual filed a complaint with the Kolkata Police, accusing the BCCI, CAB and the BookMyShow of promoting black marketing of tickets for the ODI World Cup 2023.
(Except for the headline, this story, from a syndicated feed, has not been edited by odishatv.in staff)
Mathews was forced to walk back before facing a single ball after he was timed out. He has now become the first player to be timed out in international cricket. The incident occurred during the 25th over of the Sri Lanka innings today.
The Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews had made a late entry to the World Cup as a replacement player. He was left shocked after Bangladesh side appealed when he took time to sort an issue with his helmet. Mathews took time to walk in, and subsequently was seen struggling with his helmet as the strap broke.
Then the Shakib Al Hasan side appealed to umpire and subsequently Mathews was given timed out. Shakib Al Hasan was brutally slammed and accused of showing very bad sportsmanship during the World Cup match.
Devastated Angelo Mathews! Such a moron Shakib to appeal on this.. pic.twitter.com/aoW3lB26u9
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) November 6, 2023
After the fall of a wicket or the retirement of a batter, the incoming batter must, unless Time has been called, be ready to receive the ball, or for the other batter to be ready to receive the next ball within 2 minutes of the dismissal or retirement. If this requirement is not met, the incoming batter will be out, Timed out.
Kohli’s handy century came in 119 balls and comprised 10 boundaries. Kohli scored his 49th hundred in only his 289th ODI, needing 173 matches fewer than the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who got there in his 463rd match.
The 34-year-old batter also racked up his 79th hundred for India and is now 21 short of Tendulkar’s world record of 100 centuries.
“It was a wicket that was tricky to bat on. We got a great start. My job was to keep the momentum going when I got in. But after 10 overs, the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down. My role was to bat deep and till the end after the openers fell because that's what I've done, that was the communication as well -- to have guys bat around me,” said Virat Kohli to broadcasters," he said.
"Shreyas starting hitting well as well. Shreyas and I had a lot of practice sessions before the Asia Cup and invariably batted together at 3 and 4. Both of us are comfortable against spinners," he added.
"When you lose two wickets and don't have Hardik (Pandya), you need to bat deep and get to a stage where the opposition feels like we have to restrict them. Grateful to God that I've been blessed with such moments,” he added.
India have posted a mammoth total of 326/5 on a tricky surface where batting doesn’t look easy. Virat Kohli talking of India's score, said, “It's a target well above par for me as the ball was gripping and it wasn't easy to get hold of the bowlers. We have a quality attack. Wicket will get slower, pressure will mount, so hopefully we start well with the new ball.”
After skipper Rohit Sharma had elected to bat first and posted 62 runs for the opening wicket, Kohli notched up his 49th ODI century, equalling the legendary Sachin Tendulkar's record and helped his side post a competitive total on a tricky-looking surface.
Rohit Sharma had led the charge with the bat as he gave his side a sensational start. He along with Shubman Gill played some fantastic shots upfront and made full use of the fielding restrictions. The South African bowlers were carted around as the Indian openers scored above 10 runs per over and brought up 50 runs of the partnership in no time.
Experienced Kagiso Rabada was brought into the attack and he struck in his very first over by dismissing the Indian skipper. who fell after scoring 40 off 24 balls as the 62-run opening stand came to an end in the sixth over.
Rohit also went past West Indies legend Chris Gayle and now equals AB de Villiers' record of most ODI sixes in a calendar year with 58 sixes. The 36-year-old took 23 innings to reach the milestone, taking five more than de Villiers.
Birthday boy Virat Kohli walked into bat at three and helped India finish the powerplay on 91 for 1 which is also the second-most runs South Africa have conceded in the first 10 overs in the tournament. Against Sri Lanka, they had given away 94 for 2.
Keshav Maharaj cleaned up the well-set Gill on 23 with a ripper of delivery in the 11th over. Shreyas Iyer joined Kohli at the crease and started building a partnership.
The Proteas bowled beautifully in the middle phase. The boundaries dried up and kept a check on the scoring rate. After scoring 91 in the first powerplay, the hosts managed to score only 33 runs in the next 10 overs. Iyer struggled in rotating strike and the boundaries dried up. The pair of Kohli and Iyer stitched a 50-run stand but took close to 15 overs to bring it up.
Iyer started cutting loose and played some good shots to raise the tempo and bring up his fifty off 64 balls. As soon as both brought up their respective milestones, they started cutting loose and the runs started flowing for the hosts.
Both Kohli and Iyer hit regular boundaries before the latter miscued one and fell after scoring 77 off 87 balls. KL Rahul joined Kohli but struggled to get going and fell on eight while trying to clear the fence.
South Africa kept up bowling beautifully as the slog overs approached and the Indian batters felt the pressure.
Suryakumar Yadav played a very good cameo of 22 off 14 balls before departing, courtesy of a brilliant catch by Quinton de Kock. Kohli brought up his ton off 119 balls to equal Sachin Tendulkar as the batter with the most centuries in ODI cricket. He reached the milestone with a punched single to extra cover off Rabada in the 49th over.
Having started briskly - he was on 18 off 14 with four fours - Kohli slowed down considerably after the powerplay. The South Africa spinners -- Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Aiden Markram - really tied him down, allowing just 42 runs, and a solitary four, off 64 balls. But Kohli hung in, picked up the pace once the seamers returned, and brought up his hundred off 119 balls
He remained unbeaten on 101 and Ravindra Jadeja played a very good cameo of 29 not out off 15 balls to take India to 326 at the end of their 50 overs.
Keshav Maharaj was the standout bowler for South Africa. He picked up a wicket and conceded only 30 runs in his 10 overs. Kagiso Rabada also bowled beautifully and registered figures of 1-48. Marco Jansen and Tabraiz Shamsi were on the expensive side.
The bowlers were still wayward as they conceded 22 wides. Only once have South Africa bowled more wides in an ODI - 25 against Zimbabwe in 2000 - while they gave away 21 against Kenya in 2008
Brief scores:
India 326/5 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 101 not out, Shreyas Iyer 77, Rohit Sharma 40; Keshav Maharaj 1-30, Kagiso Rabada 1-48) against South Africa.
City police sources said that the decision to seek information from the BCCI president was taken after the investigating officers of city police questioned the officials of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the online ticket marketing agency. It is learnt the replies to the queries by the investigating officials have been sought from the BCCI president by November 7.
In the notice it has also been said that any authorised representative of BCCI, who might be even the BCCI president, should be present at the Maidan Police station with the relevant documents on this count by November 7.
It is learnt that during the course of interrogation on Saturday, the CAB officials have denied any kind of responsibility in the matter, since the association is in no way involved with the marketing of tickets which is being done through an online agency.
Till date, the police have arrested 22 people in connection with the matter, and seized a total of 127 tickets -- all for Sunday's match.
The matter of ticket black marketing first surfaced after the police on November 1 evening arrested an individual red-handed while trying to sell tickets for the India-South Africa match scheduled on November 5.
Later, an individual filed a complaint with the Kolkata Police, accusing the BCCI, CAB and the BookMyShow of promoting black marketing of tickets for the ODI World Cup 2023.
Saturday's doubleheader involving a match between traditional rivals, defending champion England and five-time winners Australia and the other pitting New Zealand against Pakistan could decide the fortunes of all four teams.
Only hosts India, with 14 points from seven wins, have secured their place in the knockout stage with three semifinal spots still up for grabs with several teams in the fray. South Africa, who are placed second with 12 points, needs one win from two matches to cement their hold on the second position.
Australia are placed third in the standings with New Zealand in fourth position, with both teams on eight points from four wins. However, Australia have a match advantage, having played six games as compared to seven by the Black Caps.
New Zealand play Pakistan in a day match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru while England meet Australia in a day/night encounter at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The focus will be on the clash in Ahmedabad between defending champions England, who need to win all of their three remaining matches to have any hope of reaching the semifinals. Australia can put distance on the chasing pack with victory over their archrivals as that would take them to 10 points with two more matches to go.
England have had a horror campaign in their defence of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup trophy that they famously won for the first time in 2019.
Starting with a loss to New Zealand in the opening fixture in Ahmedabad, the titleholders have slumped to five defeats in six matches to be all but out of contention for a spot in the last four. They do have slim chances but even otherwise it will be a mouth-watering clash between the arch-rivals.
England have to win all of their three remaining matches convincingly enough to also boost their net run rate to a reasonable level while hoping that other results go their way to keep their faint hopes alive.
Though on current performance, bets will be in favour of Australia but form counts for little when the two traditional rivals meet and England can like their chances against an Australian outfit suddenly hit hard by a freak injury and more personal concerns.
Australia have won four on the trot to surge into third in the standings and the semifinal places though will take on their old foes without dynamic duo Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh.
Both will be missed though there will also be frustration with Maxwell after he sustained a concussion in a golf cart incident, while Marsh has returned home for personal reasons.
It means another shake-up for the Australia side that has recently accommodated the return of Travis Head, with all-rounders Cameron Green and Marcus Stoinis both putting their hands up for a recall.
England have their own concerns with fitness as well as form and are yet to find an answer for replacing pacer Reece Topley who was one of their few strong performers but has now been ruled out of the tournament.
New Zealand are also facing injury concerns though Mark Chapman (calf), Lockie Ferguson (Achilles), Jimmy Neesham (wrist) and Kane Williamson (thumb) all trained in Bengaluru on Friday. But a decision on their availability will be left until game day and likely confirmed at the toss, the New Zealand team management informed on Friday.
The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 on Friday approved Kyle Jamieson as a replacement for Matt Henry in the New Zealand squad.
Jamieson, who has played 13 ODIs, was named as a replacement after Henry was ruled out due to a right hamstring injury sustained during Wednesday’s match against South Africa in Pune.
The Black Caps need to snap a three-match losing streak to get their campaign back on track and improve their chances of making it to the semifinals.
Pakistan, on the other hand, have suffered four defeats in a row and can't afford to lose any more matches.
Saturday's clash will be a must-win encounter for them as a defeat to New Zealand would all but end their semifinal hopes.
New Zealand would have entered this match as a clear favourite just one week ago, but some injury concerns in the Kiwi camp and a form turnaround from Pakistan means it's difficult to determine who will emerge as the winner.
The victory over Bangladesh has revived Pakistan's hopes. Fakhar torched Bangladesh with a stylish half-century and can again be relied upon to get the Men In Green off to a fast start alongside the reliable Abdullah Shafique.
It will be interesting to see whether Pakistan include another specialist bowler against New Zealand, or continue to call on Iftikhar Ahmed to perform with the ball as he has done reasonably well over the last few games.
Pakistan will be hoping their quicks -– led by freshly crowned No.1 ranked ODI bowler Shaheen Afridi -- can put a massive dent in New Zealand's top order and this battle will go a long way in determining who comes out on top in Bengaluru.
Saturday will be a make-or-break day for these four teams in the World Cup. Will the two matches make the picture clearer?
In the battle between two giant-killers of this showpiece, Afghanistan rode on their spinners and brilliant fielding to restrict the Dutch to 179 all out and then chased down the target in 31.3 overs.
The win, their fourth in seven games, swelled Afghanistan's tally to eight points and also lifted them to the fifth spot ahead of Pakistan.
The Afghans, who defeated defending champions England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in this tournament, however, have two tough matches left against Australia and South Africa and their fate relies on the results of them.
Netherlands, who surprised the world with wins over South Africa and Bangladesh, are all but out of the tournament with two games left. They have four points.
The chase was a cakewalk for Afghanistan despite losing both their openers -- Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) and Ibrahim Zadran (20) -- inside the 11th over for 55.
Rahmat's (52 off 54 balls) sparkling form continued as he hit his third consecutive fifty and with skipper Shahidi (56 not out off 64 balls) shared 74 runs for the third wicket to set the base for Afghanistan's comfortable win.
Rahmat finally departed when the team was on 129, handing a simple return catch to Saqib Zulfiqar while trying to go over his head. He struck nine delightful boundaries during his knock.
Shahidi, who is also in red hot form, made yet another half-century to lead his side from the front.
Along with Azmatullah Omarzai (31 not out), Shahidi stitched 52 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket stand to ensure a comfortable win for his side. .
Zulfiqar (1/25), Roelof van der Merwe (1/27) and Logan van Beek (1/30) picked up a wicket each for the Dutch.
Earlier, Sybrand Engelbrecht struck a gritty half-century but failed to push the Netherlands to a competitive total. .
Engelbrecht (58 off 86 balls) anchored Netherlands' innings after they suffered a mid-innings collapse. This was after Max O'Dowd (42) and Colin Ackermann (29) shared an attacking 70-run alliance off 64 balls for the second wicket after they elected to bat.
Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi, who replaced Vikramjit Singh, in the fifth ball of the innings, with Mujeeb Ur Rahman trapping him plumb in front of the wicket.
O'Dowd and Ackermann then steadied the Dutch ship before they suffered a dramatic middle-order collapse.
Three run outs jolted Netherlands' surge as from 73 for 1 they slumped to 92 for 5 inside 20 overs.
Poor judgement while running between the wickets and some brilliant fielding from Afghans derailed the Dutchmen.
A set O'Dowd fell victim to an unnecessary run out, caught inches short of the crease by Omarzai's direct hit from the deep while searching for a double. O'Dowd struck nine boundaries.
A few overs later, Ackermann too got run out at the keeper's end while going for a non-existent single.
Netherlands' slide continued as wickets fell like ninepins with wicket-keeper Ikram Alikhil involved in four dismissals.
Bas de Leede edged one to Alikhil off off-spinner Nabi and a few overs later the Afghan pounced on another nick off Noor Ahmad to send Zulfiqar back into the dressing room.
Alikhil then effected a stumping off Nabi to dismiss Logan van Beek.
A wearing Lucknow pitch too favoured the Afghan spinners -- Nabi (3/28), Noor Ahmad (2/31) and Mujeeb (1/40).
The complaint made by an individual is against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Association of Bengal and BookMyShow which allegedly promoted the black marketing of tickets.
The CAB officials have been asked to appear within 24 hours at Maidan Police Station.
Initially, the news had spread that Snehasish Ganguly, the current CAB president and the elder brother of former Indian cricket team captain Saurav Ganguly, have been specifically summoned at the Maidan Police Station in the matter. However, later a senior official of the city police asked any senior official of CAB, which included Ganguly, to face questioning in the matter.
He said that since CAB has been issued a notice in the matter and forwarded a set of queries, and that any top official of CAB can appear at Maidan Police Station to answer those queries.
Sources said that the investigating sleuths basically have two questions to the CAB officials on this count. The first question is whether they got any prior information about the black-marketing of tickets. The second question is if they received any early caution on this count, why did they not approach the law enforcement agencies with that information.
It is learnt that till date the police have arrested 16 persons in this connection and a total of 94 tickets have been seized from their possession. Seven FIRs have been filed in the matter at two police stations.
The matter of ticket black-marketing first surfaced after the city cops on November 1 evening arrested an individual red-handed while trying to sell tickets for the India-South Africa match scheduled on November 5. Later an individual filed a complaint with the city police accusing BCCI, CAB and BookMyShow of promoting black marketing of tickets for the ODI World Cup 2023.
Delhi has only one match left to host, the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka game on November 6, while Mumbai are scheduled to host two more league games, on November 2 and November 7, and the semifinal on November 15.
"BCCI is sensitive to environmental concerns. I took up the matter formally with the ICC and there won't be any fireworks display in Mumbai, which can add to the pollution level," said BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a statement on Wednesday.
"The Board is committed to combating environmental issues and will always place the interest of our fans and stakeholders at the forefront. The BCCI acknowledges the urgent concern surrounding air quality in both Mumbai and New Delhi.
"While we strive to host the ICC World Cup in a manner befitting the celebration of cricket, we remain steadfast in our commitment to prioritising the health and safety of all our stakeholders."
Delhi's air quality remained in the "very poor" category for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday with an air quality index (AQI) of 372.
The pollution situation has been alarming in Mumbai also.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday expressed concern over the "deteriorating" air quality index in Mumbai while taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the issue.
The emphatic win would not have been possible without the special effort of skipper Rohit (87 off 101 balls), whose sublime knock stood out as most Indian batters fell by the wayside on a two-paced pitch.
Suryakumar Yadav (49) got the much needed runs in the death overs to push India to 229 for nine.
Shami (4/22) and Bumrah (3/32) stole the show with the ball for the unstoppable hosts as England batters once against cut a sorry figure as they slumped to 129 all out in 34.5 overs for their fifth loss in six games.
England are virtually out of semifinal contention while India, the only unbeaten side in the tournament, are almost there.
Having put up a below par total, India needed early wickets to put pressure on a struggling England batting unit. Bumrah and Shami hunted in tandem to deal a decisive blow, leaving England at 39 for four in the 10th over.
Play and miss was a regular feature of the powerplay as both Bumrah and Shami troubled the batters with a Test match length.
Bumrah got rid of Dawid Malan (16) and Joe Root (0) off successive balls to be on a hat-trick while Shami also did the same by castling Jonny Bairstow (14) and Ben Stokes (0), who had a moment of brain fade after being beaten multiples time.
Stokes wanted to make room to smash Shami out of the park but got himself in a nothing position to see his stumps rattled. Bumrah and Shami's first spell figures read an envious 5-1-17-2 and 4-0-5-2 respectively.
Kuldeep Yadav made it 52 for five by dismissing skipper Jos Buttler (10) with a stunning ball that pitched way outside the off stump and turned back sharply to crash the stumps.
Shami came back into the attack and had Moeen Ali (15) caught behind for his third wicket. At 81 for six, there was no coming back for a clueless England.
There was plenty of dew on the park in the evening but it wasn't an issue for the India bowlers.
Earlier, India got to bat first for the first time in the tournament. It was, however, only Rohit and Suryakumar who found a way to bat on a tricky pitch that had a two-paced wicket while the others perished trying to force the pace.
The 91-run partnership between Rohit and K L Rahul (39 off 58) stabilised the innings after India found themselves at 40 for three in the 12th over.
Rohit also added 33 valuable runs with Suryakumar but the skipper's fall led to a clutch of wickets.
England were finally able to put together an effort worthy of defending champions, excelling both with the ball and in the field.
Chris Woakes (2/33) impressed in his seven-over spell with the new ball while leggie Adil Rashid (2/35) continued to collect wickets in the middle overs. David Willey (3/45) too was effective.
Application was going to be the key on the relaid red soil pitch here and Rohit put up a masterclass.
After consuming six dot balls in the first over of the game bowled by Willey, the India skipper released the pressure by smashing the left-arm pacer for a couple of sixes and a four in his following over.
Rohit used the feet both against the pacers and spinners to manufacture the boundaries but the likes of Virat Kohli (0 off 9 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (4 off 16) departed while searching for that pressure release shot.
It was a rare duck for Kohli, who tried to step out like Rohit only to mistime his shot to Stokes at mid-off.
Shreyas was sent back by Woakes off a perfectly placed short of length ball that got big on the India number four. Clearly, Shreyas needs to fight the demon in his head to improve his short ball play.
Woakes had struggled for accuracy thus far in World Cup but delivered on Sunday.
With three batters dismissed for 40, the onus was on Rohit to take the innings forward and he did with a lot of class.
After stepping out the fast bowlers, Rohit displayed his artistry against the spin trio of Rashid, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali.
He swept Rashid, reverse-swept Livingstone and came down the track to loft Moeen over mid-off for three of the 10 fours he struck. His pick-up shot off Mark Wood that went all the way was also sublime.
In Hardik Pandya's absence, India fielded five bowlers again but R Ashwin remained out of the playing eleven.
A strong 46000 crowd was in attendance to support the home team.
Pushed into batting first on a pitch which gave bowlers some help, India were 40/3 inside 12 overs before Rohit pulled them out of trouble and held the innings together with a knock laced with ten fours and three sixes, while adding 91 runs for the fourth wicket with K.L. Rahul.
After the duo fell, Suryakumar Yadav hit four boundaries and a six to get India to a respectable total which looked difficult at one point. For England, who were tight in their fielding and built dot-ball pressure in the first Power-play, David Willey stood out with 3-45 while Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid took two scalps each in a top bowling performance.
Rohit was kept quiet in the opening over as Willey began with a maiden. But in the left-arm pacer’s second over, Rohit got off the mark with a four clearing mid-on and nailed the pull as well as loft down the ground for a brace of sixes, taking 18 runs off the third over.
England got a breakthrough in the fourth over when Woakes castled Shubman Gill with a nip-backer through the gate. With the bowlers getting some seam movement on a two-paced pitch, England put Virat Kohli under sustained dot-ball pressure and that resulted in the talismanic batter mistiming a drive on the up to mid-off, making it his first duck in World Cups.
With no respite on offer, more trouble followed India as Woakes rushed Shreyas Iyer for pace on a short ball, cramping him for room and the batter could only give a top edge on pull to mid-on. Seeing the situation, Rohit dropped anchor after surviving an LBW appeal against Mark Wood.
In between, he hit some boundaries too, amongst which a drive threading through cover off Rashid was the standout, with Rohit’s sweep off the leg-spinner for four also bringing up his 18,000 runs in international cricket. After reaching his third fifty of this World Cup, Rohit signalled a shift of gears by flicking Wood off his wrists for six.
Rahul cashed on Liam Livingstone’s introduction by getting an outside edge and then sweeping a low full toss to collect a brace of fours. More runs came for India off Livingstone as Rohit reverse-swept and brought out a hard drive for back-to-back boundaries, followed by a whip over mid-wicket for another four.
The 91-run partnership came to a halt in the 31st over when Rahul tried to smash against Willey, only to mistime and give a simple catch to mid-on. Suryakumar got going with a whippy drive past mid-on for four, followed by bringing out pull and sweep to collect more boundaries. Rohit’s knock came to an end in the 39th over when he went for a slog on Rashid’s googly but holed out to deep mid-wicket.
Rashid came back to trap Ravindra Jadeja lbw and Wood returned to find Mohammed Shami’s faint bottom edge going behind Jos Buttler. Suryakumar took India past 200 with a sweep off Rashid for four, before bringing out his trademark flick going high over fine leg for six.
Suryakumar tried to carve Willey over cover but gave an easy catch to deep point in the 47th over. Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav added 21 runs for the ninth wicket while hitting a boundary each before the former was run out on the last ball of the innings to end one short of 230.
Brief scores:
India 229/9 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 87, Suryakumar Yadav 49; David Willey 3-45, Chris Woakes 2-33) against England
Set an improbable 389 to win, New Zealand were inspired by Rachin Ravindra’s outstanding century to set up a nail-biting finish in the highest-scoring match in the history of ODIs.
Jimmy Neesham’s extraordinary 58 from 39 balls took them to the cusp of an extraordinary comeback victory, only for a brilliant run out to remove Neesham off the penultimate ball of the innings.
With six required off the last ball, And Mitchell Starc held his nerve to deny No.11 Lockie Ferguson as the Black Caps ended on 383/9 and Australia won a nailbiter by just five runs.
Runs flowed like water in a river during the monsoon, Australia rode on a brilliant opening partnership in an unusual first innings as they posted 388 at the picturesque ground in the foothills of the Himalayas.
A remarkable opening partnership between David Warner (81 off 65) and the returning Travis Head (109 from 67) got Pat Cummins’ side off to a blistering start.
Head’s first appearance of the tournament was a memorable one, as he slammed 17 boundaries, including seven maximums, in his brilliant century.
Though the opening pair put on 175 in just 19 overs, Australia struggled to build on the platform through the middle overs.
Mitchell Marsh (36 from 51 and Marnus Labuschagne (18 from 26) got particularly bogged down, with Glenn Phillips bowling superbly for 3-37 off ten overs, stepping up at just the right time for his team when Lockie Ferguson was forced off with an injury early in his spell.
Glenn Maxwell (41 off 24), Josh Inglis (38 from 28) and Pat Cummins (37 off 14) exploded through the death overs to boost Australia’s score, but their 388 could have been even higher, with New Zealand taking four wickets for just 1 run in the last two overs to bowl their neighbours out for 388.
But that 388 proved just enough on the night, as Dharamsala was treated to an all-time epic.
Devon Conway and Will Young provided the perfect start to the Black Caps in a steep chase, hitting a flurry of boundaries to help New Zealand reach 50 in merely 31 balls.
However, Australia soon had their first breakthrough, when Conway took on a short delivery from Josh Hazlewood and tried to angle it behind him, with Mitchell Starc taking a stunning grab towards his right and sending the batter back.
The Hazlewood-Starc combination struck once more in the first Powerplay. This time, it was Conway's partner, Young who had to depart to another sharp Starc catch.
Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell then took control of the Kiwis and kept the chase on track. Mitchell, in particular, was quite aggressive and helped himself to yet another good score in Dharamsala. His 54 included six fours and a six, and his brisk knock came to an end when he holed an Adam Zampa delivery to long-on, where Starc took his third catch of the innings.
Ravindra continued from the other end, picking up pace and hitting some big shots after the mid-innings mark.
Even though New Zealand lost skipper Tom Latham for merely 21, Ravindra's attacking strokeplay kept the scoring rate up.
And the youngster’s stunning tournament continued apace as he brought up another century – a knock that was cheered to the rafters by a packed crowd in Dharamsala.
The removal of the dangerous Glenn Phillips was followed by an end to Ravindra’s stunning 89-ball 116, with captain Cummins getting the key wicket to put his team on top.
But Neesham very nearly pulled off a miracle for New Zealand, with Australia’s nerves shredded in a nail-biting finish.
Earlier, Head scored 109 from just 67 deliveries at the top of the order, in what was his first match of the tournament, as Australia put their trans-Tasman rivals to the sword by posting 388 in good batting conditions.
Australia were also helped by contributions at the death from Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, and Pat Cummins, whose quickfire knocks helped the side rack up 96 runs in the final powerplay.
Several missed chances punctuated the New Zealand fielding effort, although Trent Boult did them something to cheer about late in the innings, with a three-wicket penultimate over.
Returning to the Australia side after recovering from a fractured hand, Head combined with fellow opener David Warner (81 from 65 balls) as Australia put on 175 for the opening wicket on their way to the massive total.
Head and Warner punished anything loose from the usually reliable Kiwi bowlers and smashed 10 sixes within the first Powerplay alone as they amassed 118 without loss to take control of the contest.
It took some clever bowling from Trent Boult (3/77) and the outstanding Glenn Phillips (3/37) to ensure Australia did not post an even bigger total, with the Kiwis also hurt by the absence of tearaway quick Lockie Ferguson.
Ferguson conceded 38 overs through three expensive overs but was taken from the field after his spell after he experienced pain in his right Achilles.
It meant the likes of Rachin Ravindra (0/56) and Jimmy Neesham (1/32) had to fill the void with the ball, and the likes of Maxwell (41), Inglis (38) and Cummins (37) took advantage by landing some lofty late blows to help Australia get close to 400.
But Boult’s three-wicket over helped wrap the innings up, with those runs proving quite significant in a nervy finish to the game a few hours later.
The 771 runs the two teams produced in this match is the highest match aggregate in ODIs, improving on the 696 runs they scored when these two teams met at Hamilton in 2007. On that occasion, Australia scored 346/5 and in response, New Zealand reached 350/9 in 49.3 overs.
Brief scores:
Australia 388 all out in 49.2 overs (David Warner 81, Travis Head 109, Glenn Maxwell 41, Josh Inglis 38, Pat Cummins 37; Glenn Phillips 3-37, Trent Boult 3-77, Mitchell Santner 2-80) beat New Zealand 383/9 in 50 overs (Rachin Ravindra 116, Daryl Mitchell 54, James Neesham 58; Adam Zampa 3-74, Pat Cummins 2-66, Josh Hazlewood 2-70) by five runs.
Ricky Ponting in his 43 World Cup innings slammed five World Cup centuries of which the last one came back in the 1996 World Cup playing against West Indies. Ponting held the record for 27 years which now goes to Warner.
In twenty-three World Cup innings, Warner has now six centuries comprising two consecutive World Cup centuries which came in the ongoing tournament.
With a century against the Netherlands, Warner also now levels himself with Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time list, just below India's Rohit Sharma, who has seven to his name.
Earlier, David Warner hit an impressive 104 runs off 93 balls comprising 11 boundaries and 3 maximums. With this knock, Warner also broke into the top five run-getters for World Cup 2023 and went past the likes of Mohammad Rizwan, Rachin Ravindra, and Rohit Sharma.
With the help of Warner and Maxwell’s fastest century in ODI World Cup history, Australia posted a mammoth total of 399/8 in 50 overs.
At the time of writing, Netherlands are 47/3 in 9.2 overs.
Electing to bat first, South Africa had slumped to 30/2 in the Power-play before de Kock, with help from skipper Aiden Markram (60) and Klassen (90 off 49 balls), not only guided them to safety but put up a massive score of 382/5 in 50 overs.
Led by de Kock and Klaasen, South Africa unleashed carnage in the last 10 overs, amassing 144 runs. David Miller belted an unbeaten 34 off 15 balls to further boost the South Africa innings.
Their bowlers then took over as Marco Jansen claimed two wickets in two deliveries and Kagiso Rabada and Lizaard Williams one each as South Africa reduced Bangladesh to 42/4, thus ending their fight within in the first Power-play.
Senior batter Mahmudullah struck a brilliant run-a-ball 111 in a superb counter-attacking knock. But his effort went in vain as Bangladesh lost too many wickets early and were eventually all out for 233 in 46.4 overs, slumping to a 149-run defeat.
Mahmudullah waged a lone battle as he struck 11 boundaries and four maximums as he reached his century off 104 balls.
Bangladesh's hopes ended in the Power-play itself as Jansen sent back Tanzid Hasan (12), gloving a short one behind to Klaasen, and Najmul Hossain Shanto flicking into the keeper's hands for a first-ball duck, off successive deliveries. Things went south further when skipper Shakib Al Hasan got a thick outside edge to Klaasen off Lizzad Williams, making it 31/3 in the 8th over.
Mushfiqur Rahim (8), Litton Das, who scratched around for 22 runs off 44 balls, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (11) got out cheaply and Bangladesh slumped to 81/6.
Mahmudullah added 41 runs for the seventh wicket with Nasum Ahmed (18) and raised a half-century partnership for the eighth wicket with Mustafizur Rahman (11) to give some respectability to the score and lessen the impact of the defeat a little.
Gerald Coetzee claimed three wickets for 62 runs while Jansen, Rabada and Williams claimed two wickets apiece.
South Africa registered their third win in four matches and maintained their position in the top four. They however missed an opportunity to shore up their Net Run Rate by allowing Bangladesh to reach 233 from 81/6.
Earlier, Quinton de Kock, who started his World Cup campaign with a 100 in the opener against Sri Lanka on October 7 and followed it up with a 109 against Australia a few days later, capitalised on the good batting strip in hot and humid conditions, slamming 15 boundaries and seven maximums during an innings of pure class.
He was cautious when he needed to be after South Africa lost two early wickets, built his innings with patience as he blazed to his fifty and hundred and then used brute force to hammer the Bangladeshi bowlers to all corners of the ground as he nearly overtook his highest-ever ODI score of 178.
In the process, Quinton de Kock became the highest-run scorer in the World Cup 2023, taking his total to 407, becoming the first batter to score 400 and overtaking Virat Kohli at 354 from five matches.
De Kock shared two big partnerships -- 131 for the third wicket with Aiden Markram (60) and 142 for the fourth wicket Heinrich Klassen as he rescued South Africa from a wobbly 30/2 after losing Rezza Hendrick (12) and Rassie van der Dussen (1) inside the Power-play.
The 30-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Johannesburg raced to his fifty in 47 balls, took 54 deliveries for his next fifty and then blazed his third fifty off just 28 balls. Overall his splendid knock of 174 came off 140 deliveries.
De Kock blasted 22 runs off the 43rd over bowled by Shakib Al Hasan, hammering 6 4 6 4 and a single in the last five deliveries, bringing up his 150 in the process. He continued the carnage in the next over, hitting Shoriful Islam for successive boundaries -- De Kock hammering 29 runs off seven legal deliveries. Klassen rubbed salt into the wounds by blasting the fourth delivery of the match.
Just when it looked like he would play through the innings, de Kock was out, muzzling the ball down the throat of Nasum Ahmed at deep backward point. He walked off to an ovation from the sparse crowd.
But Bangladesh's troubles were not over as Klaasen, who had matched QDK shot for shot during their century partnership, took over the mantle as he blasted some superb sixes to race to 90 off 49 balls. Klaasen struck two fours and eight sixes in another blazing knock following his 109 off 67 balls against England in the previous match.
Brief scores:
South Africa 382/5 in 50 overs (Quinton de Kock 174, Aiden Markram 60, Heinrich Klaasen 90; Hasan Mahmud 2-67) beat Bangladesh 233 all out in 46.4 overs (Mahmudullah 111; Gerald Coetzee 3-62, Marco Jansen 2-39, Kagiso Rabada 2-42, Lizaad Williams 2-56) by 149 runs
On a challenging Chepauk track, a target of 283 was certainly not the easiest of chases but Kolkata Knight Riders' Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65 off 53 balls) teed off in style while his partner Ibrahim Zadran (87 off 113 balls) dropped anchor at the other end in an opening stand of 130 which laid the perfect platform.
While experience is worth its weight in gold in these kind of games, Afghanistan did well enough to chase down the target in 49 overs, exposing the frailties of Pakistan bowling unit which just didn't turn up on the day.
Having lost seven ODIs against Pakistan, Afghanistan was missing out on that finishing touches which was required and all the four batters did play their parts to perfection in what was their highest run-chase in history of 50 over format.
This is Afghanistan's second win after beating defending champions England in New Delhi and with four points are now placed sixth in mid-table muddle.
Pakistan, for time being, stay put on fifth place but after a hat-trick of defeats, another loss against South Africa later this week, will in all likelihood shut the knock-out doors for the 1992 champions.
Seasoned Rahmat Shah (77 not out off 84 balls), whose straight six down the ground off Hasan Ali was a visual treat, showed admirable situational awareness even as Pakistan bowlers did put pressure on him during the second phase of the chase. He repeated the same shot off the same bowler to put Afghanistan within sniffing distance of victory.
He got good support from skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (48 not out, 45 balls), who reverse swept an off-colour Shadab Khan against the turn during crucial juncture which spoke volumes about his temperament. The duo added 96 runs for the third wicket in some of the most difficult batting conditions. The sense of happiness and elation after hitting the winning boundary was there for everyone to see.
The 21,000 odd sporting crowd at Chepauk also gave the team a nice standing ovation.
The match that was played on the same track as the India versus Australia game had both grip and turn on offer but 282 for 7 by Pakistan was by no means a poor effort if one takes quality spin bowling unit that Afghanistan possesses.
If spin is Afghanistan's strength, it is certainly Pakistan's biggest weakness as bowlers of Shadab (0/49 in 8 overs) and Usama Mir (0/55 in 8 overs)'s quality don't win World Cups.
In Indian domestic cricket, there are better wrist spinners than these two and one of the best in the world, Yuzvendra Chahal hasn't got a look-in in this Indian team.
When Afghanistan started chase, Gurbaz, who hit nine fours and a six, wasn't overawed by Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan or Haris Rauf.
The Pakistanis bowled too many boundaries in the first 15 overs as Gurbaz took the likes of Rauf and leg-spinner Usama Mir to the cleaners and also hit off-spinner Iftikhar Ahmed for his only six.
Strong on the off-side, Gurbaz repeatedly peppered the point and backward point region as Pakistani bowlers bowled short and wide outside the off-stump.
In one Rauf over, eighth of the innings, Gurbaz got four boundaries and save the last one, which was a streaky inside edge, three were cuts or slashes through point region.
Pakistan's fielding was rubbish to say the least as most fielders tried putting blame on others in full public view, including skipper Babar Azam, who lost his cool after failing to stop overthrows.
Earlier Babar struck a composed half-century before useful cameos by lower-order batters guided Pakistan to a reasonably good total if one takes the track into account.
Opener Abdullah Shafique made 58 off 75 balls and Babar got 74 off 92 balls, but had it not been for the efforts of Iftikhar Ahmed and the returning Shadab Khan, Pakistan would have finished with far less than what they eventually achieved.
While Iftikhar smashed his way to a 27-ball 40, Shadab contributed a breezy 40 in 38 deliveries.
Expecting a slow pitch, the Afghans moved in with four spinners. However, the track turned out to be better than expected.
The Pakistani openers Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq (17) began on a cautious note and managed a 56-run stand.
While they brought up the side's 50 by the eighth over, Shafique was targeting pacer Naveen-ul-Haq.
Also, spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman was expensive in the first 10 overs of the powerplay.
The first delivery of the second powerplay saw the Afghans earn the first breakthrough, with Imam falling to speedster Azmatullah Omarzai off a short ball.
Nevertheless, the Men in Green barely panicked as Shafique joined forces with skipper Babar and put up a 54-run partnership for the second wicket.
At this point, spinners Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Kahn operated in tandem to keep things under control, not allowing the two batters in the middle to free their arms.
In the meantime, Shafique brought up his third ODI half-century, while Babar looked to mix aggression with caution.
After pacer Mohammed Shami, playing his first game of the World Cup, picked a superb 5-54 and helped India restrict New Zealand to 273, Kohli dropped anchor and steered the run-chase to perfection, hitting eight fours and two sixes along with running 43 singles and four twos, to chase down 274 with two overs to spare. His brilliance in a run-chase took the spotlight away from Daryl Mitchell making a 127-ball 130 in the first innings.
Chasing 274, Rohit Sharma continued his marauding way of starting by flicking Trent Boult through square leg for four, before dancing down the pitch to slam Matt Henry for six and ending the over with another boundary. After Rohit survived a half-chance against Boult going for four, Shubman Gill opened up by driving in the gap at cover off Henry.
Boult wasn’t getting swing, so Rohit smacked him for a six over sight-screen, followed by Gill flicking and cutting off him to pick boundaries, also making him the fastest batter to reach 2000 ODI runs in just 38 innings, going past Hashim Amla’s mark of 40 innings.
Henry got the ball to move both ways, but Gill played a beautiful on-drive off him for four, before Rohit ramped and smacked a four and six against the pacer. Lockie Ferguson struck with his first ball of the night by having Rohit chop onto his stumps and later on, had Gill upper-cut a bouncer to third man.
Shreyas Iyer had a busy start by driving and pulling Ferguson for two boundaries, before flicking off Santner to get his third four. He took a liking to Ferguson’s pace, punching and pulling for two fours before heavy fog forced a ten-minute break. Post that, Kohli brought out a cover drive and glance for picking boundaries against Ferguson.
Boult got Iyer’s wicket when he cramped the batter on the short ball and the top edge off a mistimed hook was caught by a diving deep square-leg fielder. After giving respect to some disciplined bowling, Kohli got into his groove by lofting inside-out off Ravindra for six, before driving off Henry for four.
Though Kohli got his fifty and stood strong from one end, he was losing partners.
K.L Rahul was trapped lbw while trying to defend against Santner, with New Zealand getting the wicket on review. Santner then fired in a direct throw to have Suryakumar Yadav run out in a mix-up.
Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja kept the scoreboard ticking by mixing strike-rotation with hitting occasional boundaries to keep the required run-rate in check.
While Jadeja attacked Ferguson and Ravindra for boundaries, Kohli was sedate and pulled off Phillips and Ferguson for his fours. Kohli pulled Boult for six and brought out the on-drive for four, before mistiming a flick to deep mid-wicket to fall for 95. But Jadeja finished off the chase in style with a pull off Boult for four to seal an Indian victory.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 273 all out in 50 overs (Daryl Mitchell 130, Rachin Ravindra 75; Mohammed Shami 5-54, Kuldeep Yadav 2-73) lost to India 274/6 in 48 overs (Virat Kohli 95, Rohit Sharma 46; Lockie Ferguson 2-63, Mitchell Santner 1-37) by four wickets
On a two-paced pitch, New Zealand were in early trouble at 19/2, before Daryl Mitchell slammed a fantastic century, 130 off 127 balls, laced with nine fours and five sixes, to bring New Zealand’s innings on track.
He was in a crucial 159-run stand with Rachin Ravindra, who made a fine 75 off 87 balls, hitting six fours and a six, while taking 43 runs off Kuldeep Yadav, as New Zealand won the middle-overs phase.
Despite some luck going in their favour, New Zealand failed to get the acceleration they were looking for, as their last six wickets fell in the final 10 overs. Kuldeep and then Shami led the fightback, as the latter became the first Indian bowler to pick two five-wicket hauls in Men’s ODI World Cups.
Electing to bowl first, Mohammed Siraj gave India its first breakthrough by enticing Devon Conway to flick straight to square leg, who moved to his right to take a very sharp catch. The pressure built up by the Indian bowlers, despite burning an lbw review against Ravindra off Jasprit Bumrah, yielded another Power-play wicket when Will Young chopped onto his stumps on Shami’s first ball of the match.
Ravindra and Mitchell weren’t given much boundaries, though the latter proactively moved across the crease to rattle Siraj’s rhythm in the last over of Power-play. Ravindra had luck on his side when he used review to reverse a caught-behind decision and three balls later, Ravindra Jadeja dropped his catch on 12.
Ravindra and Mitchell hit some crisp along-the-ground boundaries, before upping their rearguard act against Kuldeep. With the ball not providing much turn, Ravindra merrily danced down the pitch to hit a six over the bowler’s head, before Mitchell smacked two big maximums off Kuldeep in the same fashion.
Ravindra continued to be impressive and brought up his fifty as well as the century of his partnership with Mitchell, who also reached his half-century by the 27th over. Mitchell was in no mood to slow down against spinners, stepping out to hit Jadeja for a six, before taking a six and four off Kuldeep, the second of which saw Bumrah dropping a sitter at long-off.
India finally managed to break the 159-run three-wicket partnership off 152 balls when Ravindra picked out long-off against Shami, falling for 75. Mitchell lofted and clipped Bumrah for two fours before employing the paddle-sweep against Kuldeep for another boundary.
But the wrist-spinner bounced back by beating Tom Latham on the flick and trapped him lbw. Though Mitchell got his fifth ODI hundred, India continued to pull things back as Glenn Phillips mistimed a slog to cover off Kuldeep.
Mark Chapman fell in a bid to go big against Bumrah, as Virat Kohli dived forward to complete a low catch. Shami returned in the 48th over to castle Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry on successive deliveries.
Though Mitchell smacked him for six and four in the final over, Shami had him caught at deep mid-wicket, followed by Lockie Ferguson's run-out on the last ball as India gave away 54 runs while taking six wickets in the last ten overs.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 273 all out in 50 overs (Daryl Mitchell 130, Rachin Ravindra 75; Mohammed Shami 5-54, Kuldeep Yadav 2-73) against India
Both teams are yet to lose a game in the competition, with New Zealand last losing to India in an ODI World Cup game back in 2003. With no Hardik Pandya unavailable due to a left ankle injury sustained in India’s previous game against Bangladesh at Pune, Suryakumar has been brought in place of him to boost the batting power.
But to strengthen their bowling in Hardik’s absence, India have brought in Shami and left out a fast-bowling all-rounder in Thakur. The two changes means India will play with just five bowlers in the clash against New Zealand, which means if one of them has an off day, there’s no sixth bowling option available.
“No particular reason (to bowl first). In training yesterday, we thought dew came in early. Good pitch, shouldn't change too much. Important to keep momentum going and forget the past. We know the nature of the WC - all teams can beat anyone. This is one place everyone wants to come and play. Picturesque,” said Rohit after winning the toss.
New Zealand captain Tom Latham remarked he would have bowled first as well and added that the side is unchanged, which means veteran fast bowler Tim Southee, recuperating from a fractured thumb, is still out of the playing eleven despite being available for Sunday’s clash.
“Looks a good surface, and we know the dew will come in. The important thing is whatever we do, we need to do well. We need to keep the momentum going. We are in a new ground, new conditions so need to adjust to these conditions as quickly as we can. Can't afford to put guard down, anyone can beat anyone,” he added.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (captain & wicket-keeper), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult
Amidst this beautiful background, the Indian team, currently on a four-match winning streak, will be eyeing to extend their unbeatable run when they take on a formidable New Zealand side, unbeaten like them, in a riveting top of the table clash on Sunday.
Though New Zealand and India have eight points each, a superior net run rate means the Blackcaps are ahead of the hosts’. For India, the odds are stacked up against them – they haven’t won over New Zealand in an ODI World Cup match in last 20 years and are in a corridor of uncertainty over their combination in Hardik Pandya’s absence.
There was a moment of nervousness crossing the minds of various onlookers when Pandya sustained the left ankle injury while trying to stop the ball on his follow-through during the league stage match against Bangladesh in Pune, and didn’t participate in the rest of the match.
With him advised rest and not traveling to Dharamshala, with an expectation to join the Indian team in Lucknow ahead of clash against England on October 29, the team think-tank now has to ponder over the best combination it can get as a makeshift measure in the absence of the absolutely irreplaceable Pandya.
With him not available, India need at least two players to fill in for Pandya’s all-round abilities. Pacer Mohammed Shami can get a look in, so as either of Ishan Kishan or Suryakumar Yadav to bolster the batting strength.
It remains to be seen if Shardul Thakur, the person closest to Pandya’s skillsets, will be retained in the seam-friendly venue or Ravichandran Ashwin can come in, as Dharamshala has also shown to help spinners too in its previous games.
Apart from this, India have been great in every aspect, though Mohammed Siraj has been a little expensive with the ball. Captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul have been among the runs in every match.
Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja have proved to be strike-makers with the ball, with the spin duo giving India the desired control and scalps for winning the middle-overs phase.
On the other hand, despite injuries to regular captain Kane Williamson and veteran pacer Tim Southee, New Zealand have been in top form. Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mithcell, Will Young and Glenn Phillips have made match-winning contributions with the bat.
With the ball, left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner, currently the highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 11 scalps, will prove to be the key for New Zealand to stop rampaging Indian batters. Fast-bowlers Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult are potent in tearing through the batting line-ups in various phases of the game.
Despite Williamson and Pandya unavailable for Sunday’s clash, the recent form of players in both India and New Zealand camps makes the match at HPCA stadium a blockbuster prospect. It promises edge-of-the-seat battles between the bat and ball to leave fans in awe of the action on the field from a cricketing and aesthetics point of view.
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Will Young
When these two teams met in an ODI World Cup last time, it became a riveting semi-final clash going into reserve day at Manchester in 2019. But it ended in a huge heartbreak for India as they lost to New Zealand by 18 runs, despite a valiant fifty from Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni also getting a half-century before he was run out by the barest of margins in what was his last international game.
Overall, India and New Zealand have squared off at ODI World Cups nine times, with the Blackcaps winning five times and the hosts being the winners thrice, with one game ending in a no-result. In the ongoing tournament, New Zealand have been clinical in defeating England, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Their batters and bowlers have clicked in unison, thus giving more impetus to their look of being the front-runners to win the title. India, on the other hand, have had great wins over Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The bowling attack has been lethal and batting has yielded huge runs, along with the fielding being electrifying.
Interestingly, India are yet to beat New Zealand in ODI World Cup games since 2003. Now, as the two best teams of the competition gear up for an epic clash, we take a look at the five memorable performances by Indian players when the team emerged victorious over New Zealand in ODI World Cups.
Kapil Dev’s 72 (1987 World Cup)
Being the master that he is, Kapil Dev showed his excellence with the bat in the 1987 ODI World Cup game against New Zealand. Known for his hard-hitting shots, Kapil had the task of rescuing the Indian team, who were in trouble at 170-7. He was not out after scoring 72 runs in 58 balls at Bengaluru, while finding support from Kiran More, who remained unbeaten on 42, as India made 252-7, enough to get a 16-run win.
Sunil Gavaskar’s 103 (1987 World Cup)
In the same tournament, Sunil Gavaskar smashed a striking 103 not out in just 88 balls against New Zealand’s seamlessly marvelous bowlers, also his first ODI century coming at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. His innings was truly impressive against the Blackcaps bowlers and became a reason for loud cheers from the fans witnessing it, as India chased down 222 in 32.1 overs.
Chetan Sharma’s Hat-trick (1987 World Cup)
Before Gavaskar scored his first ODI century to ace the chase, Chetan Sharma hogged all the limelight in the first innings. The right-arm pacer, who also became the chairman of the senior men’s selection committee, took solid hat-trick against New Zealand, by taking out Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield to become the first-ever player from India to take a hat-trick in World Cup history.
Zaheer Khan’s 4 wickets (2003 World Cup)
In that match, Zaheer Khan became an epitome of good bowling for the Indian team. He struck early blows by taking out Craig McMillian and Nathan Astle, before coming back to take out Brendon McCullum and Chris Harris in quick succession to leave New Zealand in tatters. He took 4 wickets in 8 overs, giving away 42 runs against New Zealand, as the Blackcaps were bowled out for 146 in 45.1 overs.
Kaif- Dravid’s century-partnership (2003 World Cup)
In the same match as Zaheer Khan but on the batting side, India witnessed Mohammed Kaif and Rahul Dravid stitch a partnership of 100 within 180 balls after the top-order fell cheaply. In that match, Kaif ended up scoring 68 runs off 129 balls, and Dravid ended up scoring 53 runs off 89 balls, as India won by seven wickets, with nearly ten overs to spare.
The India-New Zealand clash of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be available to watch live and free on mobile only on Disney+ Hotstar.
On Thursday, Pandya limped off the field after injuring his left ankle while fielding on his own bowling during India’s fourth league match of the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup, against Bangladesh at MCA Stadium in Pune, and did not participate in the rest of the match.
“The all-rounder was taken for scans and is advised rest. He will be under the constant supervision of the BCCI Medical Team,” said the BCCI in a medical update.
It added that Pandya will join the India team directly in Lucknow for the match against defending champions England on October 29.
Jadeja (2-38 off 10) and Yadav (1-47) sent back the two set batters and halted Bangladesh in their tracks by triggering a middle-order collapse. Bangladesh from 110/1 in the 20th over could manage a modest score after electing to bat first on a flat wicket that was expected to help their batters regain their form.
But the World Cup trend of middle-order collapses continued as Bangladesh could manage only 126/5 in the 30 overs between 11 to 40. They managed to reach a decent score thanks to a 36-ball 46 by Mahmudullah, who helped them score 67/3 in the last 10 overs.
For India, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohd Siraj came back well in the death overs to claim two wickets apiece though the latter was a tad expensive at 2-60 off his 10 overs.
However, the major concern for India in the match was the ankle injury suffered by all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who managed to bowl only three deliveries before he twisted his ankle trying to field in his follow-through.
Bangladesh were off to a good start thanks to half-centuries by openers Das (66 -- 82 balls, 7x4) and Hasan (51 0ff 43, 5x4, 3x6). However, they failed to capitalise on the platform the two openers provided.
With a flat pitch not helping the bowlers much, Das and Hasan negotiated the first five overs cautiously before wading into Siraj with Das hitting him for two fours in the sixth over, the first one off a short and wide delivery and then walking walking across the stumps to whip a length delivery on the off through the midwicket.
PANDYA INJURED
In the next over, Tanzid lifted Bumrah, who used his experience to trouble the batters, for a six as they set themselves to exploit the Power-play overs. Skipper Rohit Sharma brought in Hardik Pandya as the first change but that did not help as the all-rounder lasted only three deliveries, falling heavily while trying to field in his follow-through as Das struck him for back-to-back boundaries. Pandya was taken for scans and it was clear he would not play any further role during Bangladesh's innings.
Das and Tanzid continued to flourish, bringing up Bangladesh's fifty in 9.2 overs as Tanzid hammered Shardul Thakur for two sixes and a four in three successive deliveries in his first over, racing to his half-century in 41 deliveries, hitting five fours and three sixes.
India made their first breakthrough when Kuldeep Yadav trapped Tanzid Hasan lbw for 51, getting a flat and fast delivery to straighten as the Bangladeshi batter swept across the line. But Tanzid and Litton Das had by then done their job as they put on 93 runs for the opening wicket.
Stand-in skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (8) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (3) did not last long, Shanto was trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Jadeja while Miraz edged behind for KL Rahul to pick up a stunned off Siraj as Bangladesh slumped to 129/3 at the halfway mark.
And when Litton Das tried to hit Jadeja out of the ground, India's comeback was complete as Bangladesh slumped to 137/4. Towhid Hridoy tried to his Shardul Thakur off the ground but instead lobbed an easy catch to Shubman Gill off a cross-seam delivery banged on off-stump that bounced a bit. Bangladesh had half of their side back in the pavilion with only 179 runs on the board in the 38th over.
Keeper Mushfiqur Rahim tried to repair the innings with a 46-ball 38 (1x4, 1x6) but his attempt ended when he tried to cut a wide one from Bumrah and Jadeja plucked a brilliant catch flying parallel to the ground at backward point. From 201/6 in the 43rd over, Bangladesh could manage to reach the score they did thanks to a superb rearguard innings by Mahmudullah, who struck a 36-ball 46 with three fours and two sixes before being castled by Bumrah with a superb yorker in the final over.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 256/8 in 50 overs (Tanzid Hasan 51, Litton Das 66, Mushfiqur Rahim 38, Mahmudullah 48; Ravindra Jadeja 2-37, Jasprit Bumrah 2-41, Mohd Siraj 2-60) against India.
Shakib had suffered a left quad injury during Bangladesh's match against New Zealand a few days back and the team management is sweating on the availability of their best player for the match against table-toppers India.
Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Wednesday said that Shakib will play the match only if he is declared 100% fit by the medical staff. "If he is not ready we will not take the risk of putting him in," he told the pre-match press conference.
Shakib is a key all-rounder for Bangladesh and has claimed 3-30 in the win against Afghanistan and scored a crucial 40 against New Zealand.
The 36-year-old had a lengthy batting practice in nets session on Tuesday and did some running too. However, he did not bowl.
Hathurusinghe said he had a scan on Wednesday and they are waiting for the report before taking a final call on his availability. He avoided a response about his options in case Shakib could not play Thursday's match.
The former Sri Lanka player, who has been coaching Bangladesh for the last few years, admitted that his batting unit has failed to put up its best performance and hoped that they would manage to do that against India on Thursday.
In this regard, Hathurusinghe noted that the wicket for Thursday's match was the best batting strip they have got so far and hoped that his batters would make the most of the opportunity.
He said they are not thinking about the Indian team but are rather concentrating on their own processes. He said the important thing for them is to do their best and not think about things that are not in their control.
He said things like recent success and past record would have no impact on the match and what would matter more is which of the two teams is able to give its best in the match.
Hathurusinghe said considering that the wicket is expected to aid the batters, it would be prudent to go with an extra bowler. Taking into consideration the pitch conditions, Bangladesh may be tempted to hand 20-year-old right-arm pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib a World Cup debut. Bowling in tandem with Taskin Ahmad, the Bangladesh think tank would believe that he could be a handful for the Indian openers, especially skipper Rohit Sharma who has been in tremendous form so far.
With healthy amount of support for them in the crowd of 26, 440, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ikram Alikhil slammed half-centuries in carrying Afghanistan to 284 in 49.5 overs. In defence, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman took three wickets each in an impressive bowling performance to bowl out England for 215 in 40.5 overs.
With this, Afghanistan end their 14-match losing streak in World Cups with the biggest win of their ODI history till date, to send shockwaves in the tournament as well as in the cricketing world. Afghanistan are now at sixth place in points table, just behind England, while Australia are now at bottom of the ten-team tally.
Chasing 285, England were dealt an early blow when Jonny Bairstow was trapped lbw on first ball of Fazalhaq Farooqui, which he reviewed immediately. The replay showed the ball clipping leg-stump on umpire’s call, meaning England retained review, but lost Bairstow.
Though Dawid Malan and Joe Root picked some boundaries, Farooqui continued to bowl probing line and length – like he squared up Malan, hit him on pads (and burnt a review), then beating him. Afghanistan increased pressure on England when Mujeeb Ur Rahman castled Root with a googly that stayed low.
Malan and Harry Brook tried stabilising the chase with strike-rotation and a few boundaries, but Mohammad Nabi took out the former by deceiving him with an outside off-stump delivery which he chipped straight to short extra cover.
Naveen-ul-Haq produced a peach of a delivery – fuller ball coming in from wide outside the off-stump – to castle Jos Buttler through the gate. Rashid Khan entered wicket-takers’ list by trapping Liam Livingstone plumb lbw with a straighter delivery. Livingstone tried to overturn, but it went in vain.
With Brook at the crease and striking boundaries whenever deliveries either wide or overpitched were given to reach his fifty in 35 balls, England held their hopes high. But with boundaries drying up, Nabi struck by using dip, turn and bounce to draw Sam Curran forward and get him edge to slip.
Chris Woakes survived an lbw appeal against Mujeeb, but the spinner finally got his man when he got the googly to go past inside edge and crashed into the off-stump. Mujeeb struck the killer blow by having Brook nick behind a quicker carrom ball to Ikram Alikhil. Rashid had Adil Rashid caught at slip, and despite Reece Topley delaying the inevitable, the leg-spinner castled Mark Wood to send crowd into jubilant frenzy.
Brief Scores: Afghanistan 284 in 49.5 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ikram Alikhil 58; Adil Rashid 3-42, Mark Wood 2-50) beat England 215 in 40.3 overs (Harry Brook 66, Dawid Malan 32; Rashid Khan 3-37, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 3-51) by 69 runs
In the afternoon, Jasprit Bumrah’s intelligent variations and Kuldeep Yadav’s accurate wrist-spin, along with other bowlers amongst the wickets, meant India bowled out Pakistan for just 191 in 42.5 overs. From being 155-2 at one point, Pakistan lost eight wickets for just 36 runs in 13 overs.
In the chase of 192, apart from Rohit’s efforts, Shreyas Iyer got crucial game time to make 53 not out off 62 balls, to give India its eighth straight victory over Pakistan in Men’s ODI World Cups in an utterly one-sided match, also its third consecutive win of the ongoing competition.
Chasing 200, Shubman Gill didn’t look like he was back after missing first two games due to illness – striking three absolutely gorgeous boundaries through the off-side, before tickling one through fine to hit his fourth four in nine balls.
His promising knock ended in the third over when he flashed hard at a short and wide delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi and picked out backward point. Rohit struggled to get his timing initially, but found his groove when he carved Hasan Ali over point and flicked sweetly through mid-wicket for two fours.
There was more delight in store for Indian fans as Virat Kohli creamed his cover drive to absolute pristine timing against Shaheen and would later bring out an extra-cover drive against left-arm pacer for two unforgettable boundaries.
Rohit, meanwhile, entertained the crowd with mesmerising maximums – Shaheen was hooked over fine leg, Mohammad Nawaz was flicked over mid-wicket and Haris Rauf was muscled over long-on, also his 300th ODI six. He hit his 301st six by crunching Rauf over cover for six, before Pakistan hit back as Hasan got Kohli to mis-time to mid-on, leaving the crowd silent.
After getting his fifty in 36 balls, Rohit continued to thunder boundaries effortlessly and got good support from Iyer, who also joined him in raining fours and sixes against Pakistan’s bowlers, especially against the spinners.
Though Rohit fell short of his second successive century by 14 runs after mis-timing a slower ball to mid-on off Shaheen, Iyer and KL Rahul knocked off the remaining 36 runs with ease, with the former reaching his fifty through a winning six down the ground, to secure an emphatic win for India.
Brief Scores: Pakistan 191 in 42.5 overs (Babar Azam 50, Mohammad Rizwan 49; Jasprit Bumrah 2-19, Hardik Pandya 2-34) lost to India 192-3 in 30.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 86, Shreyas Iyer 53 not out; Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-36, Hasan Ali 1-34) by seven wickets
Bowling first on a slow pitch with variable bounce, India were on the backfoot as Pakistan were cruising at 155-2 with captain Babar Azam getting his fifty and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan nearing his half-century.
But Azam falling to Mohammed Siraj sparked a Pakistan batting implosion as they lost eight wickets for just 36 runs in their next 13 overs, ending up at 191 in 42.5 overs. Such was the innings that no batter was able to hit a six and Nasser Hussain on air said "a collapse only Pakistan team can manufacture".
Pakistan losing eight wickets for 36 runs is also their worst collapse for the last eight wickets in their history of playing in the Men’s ODI World Cup. For India, local lad Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja picked two wickets each in an exception bowling display for the hosts’, who now need to chase down 192 for making a hat-trick of wins in the competition.
Electing to bowl first, India were made to wait for a breakthrough as Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq hit seven delightful boundaries in the first seven overs Siraj, who was hit for four boundaries, bounced back when his cross-seam delivery at back of the length went past Shafique’s attempted flick to trap him plumb lbw.
India tested Imam and Azam with short ball, which the latter pulled twice off Hardik Pandya for boundaries. The all-rounder bounced back in the 13th over when he enticed Imam to go for a drive away from the body and the left-handed opener nicked behind to KL Rahul, who took a diving catch.
India could have got their third scalp when Jadeja trapped Rizwan lbw for one, but review showed the ball missing leg-stump. While Azam was in excellent touch from the word go, especially in driving beautifully through covers, Rizwan was in sublime touch with his sweeps and cuts.
With spinners tightening the screws by conceding only 11 runs in overs 24-27, Azam and Rizwan took a boundary each off Siraj to take 13 runs off the 28th over. Azam got his first ODI fifty against India when he creamed another drive through covers off Kuldeep.
But his knock immediately came to an end when his attempt to dab Siraj through third-man resulted in him being undone on pace and bounce as the pacer hit the top of off-stump, sparking a Pakistan batting collapse.
Saud Shakeel survived a run-out attempt on his very first delivery, but three overs later, he was trapped plumb lbw by Kuldeep on review. The left-arm wrist-spinner ended the 33rd over by castling Iftikhar Ahmed with a googly around his legs. Bumrah then bowled a delightful off-cutter which came in sharply to go past Rizwan’s inside edge and hit top of off-stump.
He went on to castle Shadab Khan with a length ball which straightened off the pitch to hit top of off-stump. Mohammad Nawaz hit straight to mid-on off Hardik, while Hasan Ali holed out in the deep off Jadeja, who ended Pakistan’s innings by trapping Haris Rauf lbw.
Brief Scores: Pakistan 191 in 42.5 overs (Babar Azam 50, Mohammad Rizwan 49; Jasprit Bumrah 2-19, Hardik Pandya 2-34) against India
After Ravindra Jadeja spun a vicious web of left-arm spin mastery while picking an outstanding 3-28 as spinners helped India bowl out Australia for just 199 in 49.3 overs, the visitors caused early jitters in the hosts’ camp by reducing them to 2-3 in two overs.
With the pressure being extremely high, Rahul and Kohli joined forces and used their extensive experience to resurrect the innings and get India on track in the chase. Kohli was also helped by a reprieve on 12 by Mitchell Marsh and kept the scoreboard moving with Rahul in a critical partnership to get India over the line.
Australia needed to strike with the new ball to put India under pressure and Starc did what the doctor ordered by enticing Ishan Kishan to slash hard at a wide delivery and edged to first slip for a golden duck, giving the left-arm pacer his 50th World Cup scalp and the fastest bowler to do so.
Hazlewood added more misery on India by getting a length delivery to nip one back in and trap Rohit Sharma lbw for a six-ball duck. The right-arm pacer, who got in-and-out seam movement, ended the over by having Shreyas Iyer hit a short ball straight to cover fielder to fall for a three-ball duck.
With the crowd completely silent, it started to cheer when Kohli got his first runs, though he was later on beaten by Starc and Hazlewood. KL Rahul got India’s first boundary by driving an overpitched Hazlewood delivery for four, followed by Kohli bringing out straight drive off him for a boundary.
The crowd had a huge sigh of relief in the eighth over when Mitchell Marsh, running in from mid-wicket, couldn’t hold on to a top-edge coming from Kohli’s mistimed pull, giving the batter a reprieve at 12, as India ended power-play at 27/3.
Kohli then flicked off his wrists twice in the mid-wicket region off Cameron Green in the 15th over, followed by Rahul timing his late cuts perfectly to pick a brace of fours off Adam Zampa before driving through extra cover for his third boundary off the 18th over.
Kohli and Rahul would keep the scoreboard moving with their quick running between the wickets, before the former raised his fifty with a pull off Pat Cummins. Two overs later, Rahul got his half-century, followed by Kohli pulling Cummins for a boundary.
With dew also coming in, plus Zampa not getting right length, Kohli and Rahul continued to take boundaries off pacers and spinners as India inched closer to victory. After Kohli pulled straight to mid-wicket off Hazlewood and fell for 85, Hardik Pandya slammed Hazlewood for a lofted six over long-off, also the first maximum of the chase.
Rahul then danced down the pitch to loft Maxwell over long-off for six and followed it up to muscle a four over the non-striker’s head. He finished off the chase in style with a well-timed lofted six over cover and was down on his haunches as India completed an incredible win.
Brief Scores: Australia 199 in 49.3 overs (Steven Smith 46, David Warner 41; Ravindra Jadeja 3-28, Jasprit Bumrah 2-35) lost to India 201-4 in 41.2 overs (KL Rahul 97 not out, Virat Kohli 85; Josh Hazlewood 3-38, Mitchell Starc 1-31) by six wickets
Electing to bat first on a pitch which looked dry and little bit on the slower side, Australia were 110-2 in 27 overs, before Jadeja came in to cause havoc and get his three scalps in a span of two overs to break the back of the visitors’ batting.
Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets while local lad Ravichandran Ashwin had a scalp to his name as spinners took six wickets in their 30 overs combined at an economy rate of 3.47 and triggered an Australian collapse, with all three pacers amongst the wickets too.
For Australia, who played 173 dot balls in their innings, Steven Smith and David Warner managed to make 46 and 41 respectively. But there was no noteworthy knock from the rest of the batters until Mitchell Starc hit two fours and a six in his late cameo of 28. India now need 200 to get their campaign off to a winning start.
India struck early when Jasprit Burmah got Mitchell Marsh to prod at a short of length delivery outside the off-stump and Virat Kohli at first slip took the catch by diving to his left, sending the batter back for a duck.
Warner and Smith latched on to every scoring opportunity whenever the Indian fast-bowlers bowled full or half-volley deliveries, though some deliveries from Siraj did stay low. The duo were severe against Hardik Pandya – taking him for 21 runs in his two overs and not letting him go away cheaply.
The introduction of spin saw Warner take some time, as Ashwin got some turn and uneven bounce. Warner went on the aggressive by dancing down the pitch to go inside-out against Ashwin for four, followed by sweeping Kuldeep past backward square leg for another boundary.
Kuldeep eventually broke the 69-run partnership in the 17th over by tossing up a delivery and got some dip and drift to take inside edge of Warner’s attempted drive for completing a simple caught-and-bowled dismissal.
Smith and Marnus Labuschagne tried to resurrect Australia’s innings, but the accuracy and turn from the Indian spinners meant they didn’t get boundaries after the 20th over, while strike-rotation became a hard-task, seen from reaching their hundred in 25 overs.
The first ball of the 28th over post a lengthy drinks break, Jadeja struck as he got to rip one past Smith's defence and rattled the off-stump. In his next over, Jadeja pitched one outside off-stump and Labuschagne went for a slog-sweep, only to get an edge behind to KL Rahul, with the batter burning a review.
Jadeja increased Australia’s troubles when his stump-to-stump delivery coming from around the wicket turned in to trap Alex Carey lbw. Glenn Maxwell broke a boundary drought of 73 balls by smashing Jadeja over cover for four, but in an attempt to pull a not-so-short ball from Kuldeep, he saw his leg-stump flattened.
Australia’s innings continued to sink as Ashwin had Cameron Green slapping a short ball straight to backward point. Though Pat Cummins played the long handle by hitting a six and four each, he didn’t last long, holing out in the deep against Bumrah. Pandya and Siraj took a scalp each in the fag end to end Australia’s innings in 49.3 overs.
Brief Scores: Australia 199 in 49.3 overs (Steven Smith 46, David Warner 41; Ravindra Jadeja 3-28, Jasprit Bumrah 2-35) against India
The Master Blaster, who has an enviable record of featuring in six 50-over World Cups in his decorated career, will walk out with the Men’s Cricket World Cup Trophy before the opening match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, declaring the tournament open.
"From being a ball boy in 1987 to representing the country in six editions, World Cups have always held a special place in my heart. Winning the World Cup in 2011 was the proudest moment of my cricketing journey,” said Sachin Tendulkar.
“With so many special teams and players set to compete hard in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 here in India, I am excitedly looking forward to this fantastic tournament.
“Marquee events like the World Cup seed dreams in young minds, I hope this edition too inspires young girls and boys to pick up sports and represent their countries at the highest level,” he added.
The biggest Cricket World Cup ever will also witness an eclectic cast of ICC ambassadors – West Indies legend Vivian Richards, South Africa’s AB de Villiers, England World Cup-winning skipper Eoin Morgan, Australia’s Aaron Finch, Sri Lanka spin great Muttiah Muralitharan, New Zealand’s Ross Taylor, India’s Suresh Raina, Mithali Raj and Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez.
Claire Furlong, ICC General Manager, Marketing & Communications, said: “It’s a real honour to have Sachin as our Global Ambassador as we celebrate the one-day game and get set for what we know is going to be the biggest Men’s Cricket World Cup ever. He is joined by nine fellow legends of the game who will bring the fans closer to the action and we can’t wait for it all to begin.”
The cricketing legends will lend their support and elevate the spectator experience by placing fans at the center of the action, bringing them closer to the game than ever before through meet and greets whilst sharing expert analysis that will be made available via the ICC Online Media Zone.
They will also be seen in attendance for selected matches across the country, further adding to the excitement of the highly anticipated World Cup.
The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will begin on October 5 with defending champions England taking on New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
India, the 1983 and 2011 champions, will open its 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup campaign against Australia on October 8 in Chennai. “I think India's squad is incredible, really, really strong. Captain Rohit, Hardik Pandya (is the) vice-captain.”
“The only worry I have for India is playing at home. Last time they played in India, they won. There will be huge pressure. That's the only big obstacle in my opinion,” said de Villiers on his YouTube channel.
At the same time, de Villiers feels if India manage to control the expectations around them, then he expects them to go a long way in the tournament. “But go fearless. And that is exactly the word I’m talking about.”
“Forget about the pressure of the nation, that’s something you can’t control. Control what you can control. Fearless is the word I'm looking for in the Indian squad. If they can do that, they'll go a long way and most probably lift that trophy.”
De Villiers also believes T20I batting maverick Suryakumar Yadav needs only a tiny mindset switch to crack the ODI batting code. Suryakumar’s ODI batting average stands at a paltry 24.33.
“I am very relieved to see SKY in the World Cup squad, I'm very happy about it. You guys know I'm a big fan (of Suryakumar). He plays in a similar manner to how I used to play, but in ODIs, he hasn't cracked it yet.”
“It is a tiny little mind switch that he's got to make, and he's got all the ability and capabilities that he needs to do that. I hope he gets this opportunity in this World Cup. I’m not sure (if that will happen) yet. Looking at the balance of the Indian squad, he might not start. But the World Cup is a long tournament. So let's see what happens then.”
After the Asia Cup ends on September 17, India will play three ODIs at home against Australia from September 22-27. They will then play warm-up matches against England and the Netherlands on September 30 and October 3 respectively, before starting their Men’s ODI World Cup campaign.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav
More to follow.
India have been drawn in Group A of the Asian qualifiers, alongside Qatar, Kuwait, and the winners of the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 fixture between Afghanistan and Mongolia.
The Blue Tigers will open their campaign against with an away fixture in Kuwait on November 16, 2023, before hosting reigning AFC Asian Cup champions Qatar at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, on November 21, 2023.
The following year, India will play back-to-back matches against Afghanistan or Mongolia, starting with the away fixture on March 21, 2024, and then return home to the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati, where they will play the second leg of the fixture on March 26, 2024.
AIFF Secretary General Shaji Prabhakaran said, after the announcement, “We would like to congratulate Football Association of Odisha and Assam Football Association on successfully bidding for the hosting rights of the aforementioned matches, and wish all the success for delivering the said matches at a world-class level with the support from the respective state governments.”
The hosts for India’s home leg against Kuwait on June 6, 2024, will be confirmed at a later date.
Led by the astute Pat Cummins, the Australian team is packed with world-class players across all three departments. The 5 time WC champion team features a blend of seasoned campaigners who have proven their mettle on the grandest stages and young guns ready to make their mark on the world stage.
The likes of David Warner, Steve Smith, and Glenn Maxwell will offer crucial firepower in the batting department. The pace attack looks threatening with the likes of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood forming a formidable trio that can trouble any opposition.
The official 18-member squad was released by Cricket Australia on Monday.
Australia’s 18-member squad
Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
With Rohit Sharma finding much-needed form in the recently concluded test series against West Indies and with Virat Kohli back to his best, India's batting unit looks good for now, but the main question remains in the middle order which is still inexperienced. With Asia Cup and a few bilateral series coming up, India's team management will look to give as many chances to players to find form.
The pace battery of the Indian team will be a big boost with the inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah. But with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul injured, the No 4 spot is still up for grabs for players like Surya Kumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Yashasvi Jaiswal who are in good form and are all set to make it to their first presence in ICC World Cup 2023.
India’s possible squad
Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Yashaswi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan(WC), Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, (Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul )(subject to fitness)
As far as head-to-head stats are concerned, Australia and India have faced each other in 12 matches in ICC World Cups. Out of these 12 games, Australia have won 8 whereas India have come out victorious 4 times.
India are scheduled to take on Australia on October 8, 2023 (Sunday).
Wankhede Stadium and Eden Gardens will host the semi-finals of ICC World Cup 2023. The final will be played on November 19 at Narendra Modi Stadium.
The development comes after the news of the most high-profile clash in the tournament being brought forward from the original date of October 15, owing to it coinciding with the first day of Navaratri, a major, nine-day Hindu festival as local police in Ahmedabad had raised concerns over providing adequate security on that day.
Apart from the India-Pakistan match, details of eight other matches have also been changed in the latest updated schedule of the tournament released on Wednesday.
India's last league match against the Netherlands, a day-night clash to be played in Bengaluru, has now been shifted to November 12 from November 11.
Due to the change in date of the India-Pakistan clash, defending champions England's fixture against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi will now be played 24 hours later on October 15, instead of the original date of October 14.
Pakistan's contest against Sri Lanka in Hyderabad has moved from October 12 to now being played on October 10. On the other hand, Australia's big match against South Africa in Lucknow has been moved back by 24 hours and will now be played on October 12 instead of October 13.
New Zealand's game against Bangladesh, which was originally scheduled as a day match for October 14 in Chennai has been moved back by 24 hours and will now be held on October 13 as a day-night contest. England's clash against Bangladesh in Dharamsala on October 10 is now a day match with a 10:30am start time after it was originally scheduled as a day-night fixture.
Matches scheduled for November 12 have been moved a day earlier to November 11 -- Australia-Bangladesh in Pune (10:30am) and England-Pakistan in Kolkata (2pm). It comes after the date of the England-Pakistan clash could be changed due to it coinciding with Kali Puja in the city.
The World Cup commences on October 5 when 2019 finalists England and New Zealand clash at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, with the event culminating in the final at the same venue on November 19.
Meanwhile, the ICC announced that tickets will go on sale from August 25 in a phased manner, with the fans getting the opportunity to register their interest via the official website of the tournament from August 15.
August 25 will see the start of sale of non-India warm-up matches and all non-India event matches, followed by sale of India’s warm-up matches at Guwahati and Trivandrum on August 30.
Tickets for India matches at Chennai, Delhi and Pune will be put on sale on August 31, followed by tickets of their matches at Dharamsala, Lucknow and Mumbai coming for sale from September 1.
Sale for India's matches at Bengaluru and Kolkata will happen on September 2, followed by the same for India matches at Ahmedabad happening on September 3. September 15 will see sale of tickets for semi-finals and finals of the ODI World Cup.
"We are delighted to announce that fans can now register to receive information and updates on official tickets for the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023. The schedule, after some amendments, has now been finalized and fans can now look forward to buying tickets and watching some high-quality cricket. The BCCI will leave no stone unturned to ensure that you have an enjoyable experience at all the hosting venues," said BCCI CEO Hemang Amin.
Taking to his Twitter, Yograj shared a video of an old interview and wrote, “My blood is still boiling.”
In the video, Yograj said, “Dhoni deliberately didn't bat well so that India lose to the Kiwis. He never wanted any other captain to lift the World Cup title for India.”
“While Ravindra Jadeja, who was displaying great courage at one end and helping India get close to the total, Dhoni did not play to his ability. Had he (Dhoni) played 40 per cent of his ability, we could have won the match in the 48th over,” he alleged.
Notably, Dhoni was run out for 50 in the 49th over, leaving 24 runs for the tailenders to chase. India were eventually bundled out for 221 while chasing a total of 239.
Brief Score of semi-finals between India and New Zealand in 2019:
New Zealand: 239 for 8 in 50 overs. (Ross Taylor 73, Kane Williamson 67; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/43, Jasprit Bumrah 1/39).
India: 221 all out in 49.3 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 77, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 50; Matt Henry 3/37, Mitchell Santner 2/34, Trent Boult 2/42).
A report by ESPNCricinfo says Pant, who miraculously survived a horrific car crash on December 30, has torn all three key ligaments in his right knee, two of which were reconstructed recently during the surgery which happened on January 6 while the reconstruction of the third torn ligament is expected after six weeks.
"All three ligaments in the knee - anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament, which are necessary for movement and stability - have been torn in Pant's case."
"It is understood that in the surgery conducted recently, both the PCL and MCL were reconstructed. Pant will need to undergo another surgery to reconstruct his ACL, but the doctors will wait for at least six weeks before going ahead with it," said the report.
As a result, Pant is in danger of being sidelined from the game for at least six months, which can potentially affect his chances of being fit and available for selection for the 2023 ODI World Cup, scheduled to take place in India in October-November.
On December 30, around 5:30am, Pant, 25, suffered multiple injuries when his car collided with a road divider and caught fire on the Delhi-Dehradun highway. The horrific car accident happened between Manglaur and Narsan in the Haridwar district in the state of Uttarakhand.
Pant was initially taken to Saksham Hospital Multispecialty and Trauma Centre, before being admitted to Max Hospital, Dehradun. He was on his way to his hometown Roorkee from New Delhi and was alone while driving his Mercedes car.
On January 4, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that Pant would be shifted from Dehradun to Mumbai via an air ambulance for surgery and further treatment, where he is now under direct supervision of Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, the head of the Centre for Sports Medicine, and Director of Arthroscopy & Shoulder Service, at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri West, Mumbai.
The first medical update from the BCCI hours after the accident on December 30 said apart from right knee ligament tear, Pant suffered two cuts on his forehead, and has also hurt his right wrist, ankle, and toe apart from abrasion injuries on his back.
Later that evening, a medical bulletin said the results of Pant's MRI of the brain and spine came out as normal. It added that Pant also underwent plastic surgery to manage his facial injuries, lacerated wounds and abrasions.
The report also said that there is no definitive timeline given by the doctors yet on how long it would take Pant to resume training for playing cricket. It added that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the selectors have concluded that the wicketkeeper-batter would be out for a minimum of six months.
It implies that Pant will miss white-ball series against New Zealand, four Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and three ODIs against Australia, IPL 2023, where he is captain of Delhi Capitals and World Test Championship (WTC) final in June if India makes it to the title clash.
In his absence, KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan are the wicketkeeping options for the first two Tests against Australia. Bharat and Ishan are also included as keeping options for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand starting from January 18. Ishan and Jitesh Sharma are the keeping options for T20Is against New Zealand, which follows after the ODI series.
Pant, who made his international cricket debut in February 2017, was part of the India Test squad that sealed a 2-0 series victory over Bangladesh in Dhaka in December 2022. In that match which ended on December 25, he hit a match-winning 93 in the first innings of the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
As per reports, the Odisha government claimed the stadium in Rourkela to be the world’s biggest.
On Thursday, CM Patnaik tweeted, “Birsa Munda Stadium, world’s biggest hockey stadium is now a reality in just 15 months… I am sure it will emerge as the best venue for field hockey in the world.”
Later in the day, during a press meet in Rourkela, BJP MLA Shankar Oram questioned Patnaik’s claims and asserted that considering the seating capacity, Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium is 4th globally.
“Today he (Naveen Patnaik) claimed it (stadium) to be number one in the world. It holds 4th rank with 20000-seating capacity. Chandigarh is placed above it with a 30000-seating capacity. Pakistan’s Lahore stadium has a capacity of 40000 seats. Even a stadium in Canada has around 35000 to 40000 seats. How it can become number one? I’m not able to get it on which grounds they are claiming it to be number one,” said Oram.
The Saudi Arabian club announced on Saturday that it has officially signed the 37-year-old Portuguese superstar, confirming the news that had broken out during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that ended a few weeks back.
"History in the making. This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves. Welcome, Cristiano to your new home," the club based in Riyadh said on its official social media account on Saturday.
Media reports have claimed that Ronaldo could be more than 200 million U.S. dollars a year in West Asia. Some reports claimed that he will get 75 million a year, plus all the incentives and some percentage of ad revenue and sales.
"I am fortunate that I have won everything I set out to win in European football and feel now that this is the right moment to share my experience in Asia," said the Portuguese captain, who will leave major European leagues for the first time in his career, reports Xinhua.
Ronaldo's arrival gives the Saudi Arabian football league a huge boost in the region too as Al Nassr Football Club participates in the Asian Champions League.
As an iconic figure of European football, Ronaldo has won five UEFA Champions League titles with Real Madrid and Manchester United. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner also lifted Portugal's national team's first European Championship trophy in 2016.
Ronaldo terminated his contract with Manchester United in November this year after he harshly criticized the club's head coach Erik ten Hag and management team in an explosive interview. Later he experienced a disappointing FIFA World Cup in Qatar as he only scored one goal and Portugal lost to Morocco in the quarterfinals.