India reaches 4th ODI World Cup final
India reached the final of the 2023 Cricket World Cup by comprehensively defeating New Zealand in the first semifinal on Wednesday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. India won by 70 runs as New Zealand could only score 327 in response to the former’s 397.
This would be the Men in Blue’s fourth ODI World Cup final and their attempt at a third trophy, having won in 1983 and 2011. The final would take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, November 19, where they would face either Australia or South Africa. The two are meeting in the second semifinal at the iconic Eden Gardens today.
There were two centurions for India—Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer, For the former, it was the 50th One-Day International century, beating the world record set by Sachin Tendulkar. His 117 also enabled him to become the batter with the highest runs in a single edition of a men’s Cricket World Cup; he now has 711. And that’s a nice little palindrome to remember!
This was also Kohli’s eighth 50-plus score in the tournament, beating a record held jointly by Tendulkar and Shakib Al Hasan.
Iyer’s century came in just 67 balls, which is the fastest in an ODI World Cup knockout game. India’s total of 397 was also the highest by any team in an ODI World Cup knockout game.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were the other batters to enter the record books. Sharma now has a total of 51 sixes in ODI World Cups, the most for a player. Twenty-eight of these came in this edition, the most for any batter in a single edition. Both these bettered marks set by Chris Gayle. of the West Indies, a team fallen to so low standards that it could not even qualify for this tournament.
Rohit and Shubman now have 14 50-plus partnerships in ODIs, which is the most for a pair in a calendar year in men’s ODIs.
Mohammed Shami was the bowler to set several records—the first to take a seven-wicket haul in an ODI World Cup knockout game, the most five-wicket hauls in ODI World Cups (four) and the fastest to reach the milestone of 50 wickets in ODI World Cups (54 in just 17 games).
New Zealand’s Time Southee conceded 100 runs in his 10 overs, the first bowler to concede this many twice in ODIs.
Among the New Zealand batters, Daryl Mitchell scored a creditable century (134 in 119 balls). Captain Kane Williamson scored 67. While they were on a strong partnership, there seemed an outside chance that the Kiwis would overhaul India’s massive total, but that was not to be as Shami became the destroyer-in-chief, taking the top five batters and two more.
