Wednesday 16 April 2025
ICC Champions Trophy-2025: India Sets-up Semi-Final with Australia
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India will now take on Australia in the first semifinal to be played on Tuesday while Group B table toppers South Africa will now faceNew Zealandin the second semifinal to be played in Lahore on Wednesday. India’s Varun Chakravarthy celebrated the hard-earned victory with his teammates during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and New Zealand at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 2, 2025.
Varun Chakravarthy starred with 5 wickets for 42 runs as India defeated New Zealand in Dubai and topped the Group A table to set up a semifinal date with Australia on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Group B table toppers South Africa will now face New Zealand in the second semifinal in Lahore on Wednesday.
Kane Williamson scored a fighting 81 but he was sent back by Axar Patel, who along with Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja took 1 wicket apiece. India will be wary of their semifinal opponents who even with a depleted squad pose a threat. The last time these two sides met in an ICC 50-over tournament, Australia had walked out as the ODI World Cup 2023 champions in Ahemdabad.
Earlier, Shreyas Iyer produced a composed fifty under pressure but New Zealand, led by pacer Mark Henry, managed to stifle India to an under-par 249 for nine.
Iyer (79 off 98 balls) shared a well-paced 98 runs alliance with Axar Patel (42 off 61 balls) for the fourth wicket and Hardik Pandya (45 off 45) played a quick-fire innings towards the end to help India survive a top-order meltdown. At one stage, India was 30/for3.
After winning, Indian Captain, Rohit Sharma shares: Important is to finish on a high. NewZealand are a good team who are playing some good cricket. Very important to get a good result, we played a perfect game. It was important at that stage (after being 30/3) to build a partnership, and I thought we got to a good total.
We have the quality in our bowling to defend that total. (On Chakravarthy) He has something different about him, so wanted to try and see what he can offer. We haven’t thought much about the next game, but good headache to have. Critical to possibly win every game and doing everything right in a short tournament. Important to correct mistakes quickly, and that’s where we know if your team is going up or going down.
Now, it will be a good game, Australia has a rich history of playingICCtournaments well, but ii is about us and what we want to do well on that particular day. It will be a great contest, looking forward to that. Hopefully we can stitch one towards us.
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