Live Report - Ind vs NZ, World Cup 2023, semi-final

"KOH-LIIIIIII! KOH-LIIIIII"

"BOOOM BOOM" "BUM-RAH!" "BOOM BOOM" "BUM-RAH!"

A festive Wankhede crowd sung their names. The decibel level hit 114 and that was just from Rohit Sharma winning the toss.

They screamed with every boundary. They roared with every appeal. They will now go home with memories that will last a lifetime; memories that may yet turn even more special come November 19.

INDIA ARE IN THE WORLD CUP FINAL.

They've got there on the back of Virat Kohli hitting his 50th ODI century - a world record going past the great Sachin Tendulkar

They've got there with Mohammed Shami picking up A SEVEN-FOR! He's got over 50 wickets in total in World Cup cricket, in just 17 innings - the quickest by anyone in history. And he didn't play their first few games. He was an injury replacement.

They've got there with Shreyas Iyer proving to be a middle-order powerhouse. He made 105 off 70 balls from that No. 4 position that let India down so badly in 2019.

They've got there with Kuldeep Yadav, bowling in the death. Wristspinners usually aren't accurate enough to bowl in a phase of play where limiting the runs is so crucial. Today he bowled the 41st and the 43rd for just six runs and a wicket.

They've got there with Rohit Sharma playing like he is invincible. He has not taken a backwards step, not even in response to good bowling, or personal landmarks. His innings has almost always been the first domino that has led to all 10 of India's victories here.

This team has so many match-winners it is just ridiculous.

New Zealand do what New Zealand always do. They scrap.

Daryl Mitchell spend a whole press conference reinforcing that.

Conditions in Mumbai were really tough. The first 10 overs offered swing and seam. The next 20 offered spin and bounce. There was no dew. Everything was in India's favour today and still they took the game deep. There was a point where India were actually panicking. Panicking after having 397 on the board.

New Zealand couldn't make more of that. But through the course of this tournament, they've found a player who could be their future. Rachin Ravindra finishes his first World Cup with 578 runs. In Mitchell, they have an all-format run-machine. In Santner, they have a fingerspinner who continues to be unhittable. Kane Williamson came back from an ACL injury in record time. Lockie Ferguson has been managing an Achilles problem all through the tournament. This team has dug deep but have fallen short.

They chose to not to take away South Africa's strength when they could have, by batting first themselves. They lost that game badly. They haven't been taking their catches as well as they could. Against Pakistan, they bowled one part-timer over too many. Even today Williamson could've been run out for being a bit dozy. They gave 12 runs off one ball to Australia and lost that game by five runs. NZ always do the little things right but those went wrong.

Bumrah's slower ball gets rid of Phillips.

All through the over he was looking for the yorker.

For just the last ball, he took pace off and the batter was into his shot a touch too soon.

Caught on the long-off boundary by possibly the best fielder in the world, Ravindra Jadeja.

Another catch comes Jadeja's way. Kuldeep strikes. Mark Chapman is gone.

Nasser Hussain on the broadcast hits the nail on the head: Rohit's had an amazing World Cup as captain. Where does he want you to hit? He wants you to hit where Jadeja is and that's where Kuldeep bowls. On the pads, with Jadeja at deep square leg.

Glenn Phillips was 9 off 14.

At that time, Mitchell made sure to walk up to his partner and calm him down. He asked him to just stay out there.

And the upshot of that

Phillips is now 36 off 27. NZ are 286 for 4, needing 112 from 54. India at this stage were 292 for 1

Mitchell, though, is losing steam. He got to 100 off 85 balls. Since then, he's made only 28 runs in 26.

NZ were cruising through the middle overs.

India sensed they couldn't allow that anymore. Rohit Sharma brought them into a huddle. He got them refocused. Shami came on, picked up two wickets, and that provided the opening.

That's part one.

Part two was ramping up the pressure. And they did that by allowing only 17 runs in five overs between the 33rd and the 37th.

This is when Daryl Mitchell was still out there batting on a hundred-plus.

But by that time, he's had to receive treatment for cramp on his leg. India saw that. They got their fast bowlers, Mohammed Siraj in particular, to come around the wicket and bowl wide yorkers.

Mitchell's power game was instantly negated. If he couldn't reach the ball, he couldn't hit it. Even if he managed to get a bit of bat on it, he was so far off balance and had to settle for mis-hits.

NZ now need 132 in the last 10 overs with six wickets in hand.

First spell

Second spell

Third spell

Shami who dropped him only a few minnutes earlier has made amends by picking up the NZ captain's wicket. Williamson survived that chance on 52. He now falls for 69 to a slower ball.

So the huddle has helped. India has regrouped. They have a new man to target. Tom Latham. AND HE'S GONE FOR A DUCK.

The Wankhede has woken up. They are gracious with their applause for Mitchell and his century but now they go straight into a trance, screaming in delight.

"WHOAAAAAAA" they go as Shami runs in to the new batter.

Glenn Phillips inside edges the ball.

"OOOOOOHHHH" they go knowing they're back on top.

In the course of those six balls, India's probability of victory rose almost 10%.

India bring themselves into a huddle. The drinks carriers part of it. R Ashwin was one of them. He was basically coaching Kuldeep. It's bizarre that when there is so much purchase for the spinners, both of them have got no wickets, and are going at over a run a ball. Because Daryl Mitchell.

He deserves all the credit for that. They're not comfortable tossing the ball up - or slowing it down - against him. Because they know he will launch them down the ground. So they keep going short and flat at him. This is why he is such a key player for New Zealand. He is the only one who can mess with the bowling plans. The others absorb those plans and find a way through. Mitchell walks in and rips them apart and plays the way he wants to.

Overs 1-10: 46 for 2 (plenty of swing and seam)
Overs 11-20: 78 for 0 (No dew, loads of turn)
Overs 21-30: 75 for 0 (Mitchell and Williamson batting past fifty)

Coming into this game, India had the most wickets (85), best economy rate (4.5), best average (19.6) and best strike rate (26.2) among all teams in the World Cup.

Right here, they're finding it hard to strike

Neesham and Jamieson in the dressing room are standing up in the dressing room. They're gonna have to stay standing for the rest of the innings.

The conditions aren't as easy to bat in as they've seemed all day here. If this stand is broken, India will pile on. That's why they've brought back Bumrah for the 29th over. NZ though will be very careful with this partnership, just keep ticking six-seven runs an over, get to somewhere near 300 by the 40th over and then roll the dice. Roll the dice hard.

OOOH, BUMRAH SHOULD'VE HAVE WILLIAMSON! SHAMI DROPS THE CATCH AT MID-ON!

A chase of 398 and its still alive. Mitchell and Williamson have put on 150 runs in 130 balls.

Remember though, there's no dew to help the batters. There's turn on offer. Big turn. This partnership has been class. But they're going to have tbe class and they're gonna have to make a bit of carnage later on.

There hasn't been any dew in the outfield.

The odd ball from both Jadeja and Kuldeep is gripping and spinning. Big!

Williamson and Mitchell are effectively either sweeping them or hanging back to chop them either side of the wicket.

The rare times that both spinners flight the ball, Mitchell especially has been smashing them for sixes. He launched Jadeja into the top tier of the Mumbai Cricket Association pavilion. And then again for a 107m monster, the longest of the World Cup

NZ pride themselves on staying in a cricket match and then seeing what happens.

Daryl Mitchell opened the batting and took New Zealand to the T20 World Cup final in 2021

He has taken over the No. 4 spot in the ODI side and has made sure NZ haven't felt the loss of Ross Taylor at all. Which is a pretty big feat on its own. Taylor is an all-time Black Cap great.

In some ways, Mitchell may be this team's most important batter.

Kane Williamson is the rock at No. 3. Most oppositions will value his wicket high. But they'll also know they can manage the amount of damage he can inflict simply because he is so orthodox.

Mitchell isn't that easy to manage. He's already got a century against India in this World Cup. He's brilliant against pace and he holds absolutely nothing back against spin, unafraid to run at them, and skillful enough to sweep them any which way. He's also calculated, often targeting bowlers in the first ball of the over so that for the rest of it, they're left second-guessing themselves.

NZ are 87 for 2 after 15 overs. This is around the time the ball stops moving for the quicks; also around the time when dew usually comes in - it hasn't so far. The required rate is 8.88. A chase like this will be tough in any circumstances let alone in a World Cup semi-final against the tournament's best bowling attack.

With Mohammed Shami in such blistering form, how can batters hope to put him off his length? When batters play him from the crease, they allow for Shami’s seam position to work its magic when he’s bowling such impeccable lengths. In conditions that offer even a little bit of movement, the chances of batters to nick one behind or play on to their stumps increase.

What the opposition batters haven’t tried enough in this World Cup is to step down the pitch at Shami. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, since April 2019 and before this World Cup batters had scored at a strike-rate of 158.2 against Shami in while-ball cricket (T20s and ODIs) when they have stepped out to him. Only four batters have been dismissed from 110 balls.

However, in this World Cup, out of the 210 balls bowled by Shami until the 10th over of the New Zealand innings, batters have stepped out to him only on five occasions. Three of those shots were played by Daryl Mitchell, who’s at the crease now. Don't be surprised if Mitchell does that again.

Conway against fast bowling
over the wicket in ODIs: 647 runs at an average of 46.21
around the wicket in ODIs: 95 runs at an average of 15.83

Conway fell to Shami bowling around the wicket. Top homework done by India.

Shami in this game so far

Rachin Ravindra gone too.

Here is the former India bowling coach B Arun talking about Shami ahead of this game.: "I remember Mohammed Shami saying once, 'I need to run in like a horse to be successful.' All this World Cup, Shami has been running in - galloping, you could say - fluently, with an amazing rhythm that complements his bowling skills.

Fast bowling is all about a feeling inside that drives the bowler to run in with rhythm and confidence, which in turn enable him to pull off special feats. Shami is being driven by that feeling now."

Jasprit Bumrah in the first over

Mohammed Siraj in the second over

Amid those boundaries there were a couple of plays and misses. There was swing and seam as well. The average powerplay score in the second innings in Mumbai is about 50 for 4. New Zealand cannot afford that here.

Bumrah in the third over.

He's been pretty much perfect in the powerplay this World Cup. Today though he's not got his lines right, yet. Matt Roller from the ground sends this in: The unique silence of an Indian crowd: no reaction at all to any of Conway's three boundaries off Bumrah

Former NZ fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan throws back to this great game...

... where Jacques Kallis came back into the dressing room after the first innings and said pretty much the same thing

Conditions didn't help New Zealand. They sometimes didn't help themselves either. The leader of their attack has been whacked all over and by everybody. Tim Southee has gone for 100 in his 10 overs as well, his second-most expensive spell in ODIs.

The scary thing is, if Mumbai stays true to trend, the new ball in Jasprit Bumrah's hands, after sunset with a little moisture around, will jag all over the place.

This could become even worse for NZ.

He got on in the last game. He's got another in this one. That means he joins a select group of India players with back-to-back World Cup hundreds and all of them are there in the dressing room right now.

Rahul Dravid - 1999
Rohit Sharma - 2019
Shreyas Iyer - 2023

The coolest thing about this innings is he's been on the attack right through and its been controlled aggression. Check out those strike rates - over 120 against every bowler except the one who bowled a maiden to him, Mitchell Santner - and then check out those control percentage stats. Some of them are at 100%.

Kohli falls for 117 off 113 with nine fours and two sixes.

As he walks off, Latham, Ferguson, Williamson and Ravindra come over to congratulate him. Southee did too, but that was earlier in the over before taking him out.

A massive innings in a massive game. A century in a World Cup semi-final. He hadn't even had a fifty in a WC knockout game before this. Now at his new home - he's moved to Mumbai from Delhi - he's made history. Wankhede gave him a standing ovation. Among them were his wife and actor Anushka Sharma. David Becham was there. Sachin Tendulkar was there. His team-mates Hardik and Chahal were there. Actors Ranbir Kapoor, John Abraham and Shahid Kapoor were there.

All of them rose to salute this man. This unreal person.

He goes PAST his idol Sachin Tendulkar in front of a real-life Sachin Tendulkar and a reel-life Sachin Tendulkar.

Wankhede is screaming his name. His wife Anushka Sharma is among them, blowing him kisses.

What a moment. What a player. He leaps. He punches the air. He sinks to the floor. He throws his head back. He takes it all in. His smile is magic.

The he gets up and he bows to his idol in the stands.

Kohli tied with Sachin on 49 on his birthday last week. Now's he's at the top all on his own. He spoke in Kolkata after that century saying Sachin will always be the best for him. For people who were too young to have seen peak Sachin, for those who have grown up watching Kohli, that point of view will not make a lot of sense.

Kohli may have played in an era where ODI run-scoring has been much easier with two new balls and no reverse swing but there has been no batter who has been as good as he is under pressure. No one who has made centuries look so inevitable.

He broke himself down and built himself back up to perform like this. Changed his diet. His way of life. He could not have known that it would lead to this much success. At the time he decided to sacrifice so much to become this run-machine, this Kohli with 50 ODI centuries would've only been abstract notion. A distant dream.

It is amazing that he has chased an abstract notion, a distant dream, and its now here in the flesh.

At the end of the 38th over, after shifting his weight onto his back foot to pull a bouncer from Trent Boult for a single, he pulls up and grabs the upper part of his right thigh.

Kohli takes a little time for himself. The physio is out there attending to him. But he's not going anywhere. He's 92 not out chasing a century that will give him a world record. He is also brutal when he is in the last 10 overs of a one-day game. He will not let go of an advantage like that.

Mitchell Santner bowls a maiden to Shreyas Iyer in the 35th over.

Shreyas Iyer takes that out on Trent Boult in the next over.

India running red hot. Iyer has 50 off 35 balls. His fourth successive fifty of the tournament.

There's a little frustration creeping into NZ now.

As Kohli moved from 70 to 74 with a neat little leg glance, Trent Boult who chased that ball as hard is could on the boundary grabbed it and backhanded it with a little more oomph than needed.

Earlier, Rachin Ravindra deceived Shreyas Iyer the ball after he was whacked for six, the extra turn he generated creating a catching opportunity but it feel wide of Tim Southee at short third and the bowler railed at his luck.

Then there was cool, calm Kane fist-pumping after taking the Rohit catch.

NZ are deep in the wilderness here. The pitch - which was originally meant to be a fresh one - was changed at the last minute and is negating all of their best wicket-takers. Lockie Ferguson's pace is no longer a threat. Even Mitchell Santner is going at over six an over.

Overs 1-10: 84 runs, one wicket
Overs 11-20: 66 runs, no wickets
Overs 21-30: 64 runs, Gill retires hurt

With the field spreading out, NZ have been able to drag the runs down.

But that may also be a function of India being mindful of the fact that they have only six specialist batters and one allrounder, so they cannot push too hard too early.

ESPNcricinfo's forecasters suggests India will get to a total of 358 from here.

He is the highest run-getter of the 2023 World Cup and he's got there running teams ragged. He's run nearly 60% of his runs and now has his first fifty in an ODI World Cup knockout.

Kohli now has eight fifty-plus scores in the World Cup, more than anybody else. That's another Sachin Tendulkar record that he's chased down.

In the middle of the 23rd over, after managing a single, Gill went down and stayed down.

That created a little chaos in the Indian camp. Rohit who was up in the dressing room came down to the dugout to see what was happening.

Is it cramp? Gill points to his groin, and then traces a line down his leg all the way to his knee, as the physio was checking on him. Eventually, the decision is taken and he walks off the field. 79 off 65.

Gill had dengue at the start of the World Cup and he admitted he wasn't at his optimal weight because of that; that he'd lost muscle mass and was trying to build it back up.

NZ see Shreyas Iyer coming down to replace him and go to their fastest bowler Lockie Ferguson to deal with him. Iyer is a remarkable hitter of spin but looks occasionally out of place when he's targeted by the short ball.

Virat Kohli's game is built on avoiding risk.

When there's pace on the ball, he can use that, and find gaps and trust his fitness to run those ones and twos to keep a high strike rate.

When pace is taken off, and he has to force it, then he feels the pinch a bit. New Zealand are trying to make that happen by bowling Santner and Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips through the middle overs.

Kohli is 26 off 34 with two fours at the end of the 20th over

But he isn't feeling any of the pinch. He has a control percentage of 97 right now.

That's because at the other end, Gill is taking down the spinners. He's already danced down the track - that's the kind of risk Kohli avoids - twice and both times the ball went for six.

Rohit Sharma’s blistering starts have been cornerstones to India’s batting in this World Cup. Thanks to the starts he’s given, other India batters have had time to settle in, not having had to bat out of their comfort zones.

Out of the 550 runs Rohit has scored in this World Cup, 226 have come in the first-20 balls. He’s looked to maximise the Powerplay overs for India, selflessly in doing so, not taking his foot off the pedal even while nearing milestone.

He’s been dismissed four times in the forties in this World Cup. Rohit has made 40 or more runs five times in the Powerplay in this World Cup at a strike rate of 120-plus. Since the 1999 World Cup, only Brendon McCullum, in the 2015 World Cup, has had as many such starts in the first-10 overs.

He was 11 off 14 with just two fours.

Now he's 50 off 41 with seven fours and a six.

That's 39 runs in his last 27 balls. Smooth acceleration.

Shubman Gill has switched on and NZ will know that can be match-defining. He's hit them for an ODI double-century previously.

A big reason why Gill is so hard to bowl to is the back of a length, tight to the body mode of attack doesn't work against him. He is somehow able to play these quasi cuts and pulls - where he doesn't go fully horizontal with the bat because he can't because there is no room on offer, but is still able to get plenty of timing on it.

Lockie Ferguson is New Zealand's middle-overs enforcer. But this is not the kind of pitch that suits him. It's slow. It's dry. It has no grass and therefore no pace. The more he tries to go short and at 150 kph, the easier the ball is coming onto the bat, and Gill has enjoyed that. Their head-to-head today reads 29 off 15. Strike rate of 193 with four fours and a six

Kane Williamson has perhaps the best poker face that's never played poker.

But here, as soon as he takes a skier, he punches the air.

About halfway through it, his better senses regain control - Boo for that! - and in the end what we get is a fist pump thats almost apologetic.

Tim Southee breaks through with a 114kph offcutter, which is the kind of ball that this pitch is made for. Slow and dry and eventually once it wears and tears grippy.

Rohit goes for the big hit. He's always gone for the big hit. Only this time he's mistimed it so much that mid-off can run back about 10 yards, to his right, all the while watching the ball coming down, and take the catch. Lovely stuff from Williamson. Especially since about six or so months ago he needed a crutch to walk with his knees not working.

This is a slow pitch. The short balls that NZ have tried to bowl at Rohit to try and get him out have shown that very very clearly. The batter has had time to see it and pull it from down to up. Also, the Wankhede is a small ground. Mis-hits can go for sixes and one did.

India have their fifty up inside six overs. Rohit 45 off 22, 4x4, 4x6. Gill 11 off 14, 2x4

New Zealand had to wait until the seventh over, bowled by Boult to Rohit, all seven balls, to get away with one without a boundary.

The main threat when facing Trent Boult as a right-hander is the inswinger.

That's what Rohit was getting for the first three balls of the over, and he decided to do something about it.

He was already batting outside his crease to minimise the damage a moving ball can do.

Then he went a step further, flicking a reasonably good ball on middle stump, just over short midwicket.

It was a risk. But it came off, and as it came off, he looked a lot like Sachin Tendulkar. The bat coming down to meet the ball, the wrists giving it power, and then the bat going up in a bit of a flourish.

Class shot. But even better than that, it made Boult follow up with a ball that was no longer threatening the stumps. That one shot - at least for that one over - de-fanged one of the greatest wicket-takers with the new ball in this game.

Because Boult went wide. He gave up his two best modes of dismissal, and Rohit could happily free his arms and hit another four past mid-off.

The way Rohit is batting right now makes it incredulous that he ever batted any other way; that he ever felt the need to play within himself.

Rohit Sharma: 107 runs in 156 balls, four dismissals
Virat Kohli: 145 runs in 137 balls, three dismissals
Shubman Gill: 14 runs in 20 balls, one dismissal

By virtue of winning the toss, India have weighted this battle slightly in their favour, because Trent Boult won't be bowling with a new ball under lights when its jagged around. It's likely they'll see off his first spell and target Tim Southee, who was brought into the World Cup as an injury replacement.

India have been the quickest scoring team (6.7 rpo) in the first 10 overs at this World Cup, and as much as the nerves of playing a semi-final might trigger them to be cautious for the first maybe three or four overs, once Rohit, especially, sizes up the pace of the pitch, it's on.

Rohit Sharma says, "the pitch looks good, on the slower side." He recalles the 2019 semi-final. Says NZ have been consistent over the years. Its nice. Will be a good contest. "Today is the day. Focus on the present. Control the controllables."

Kane Williamson says they would've liked to bat first "on a used surface" and he hopes that maybe there's a bit of dew later to help them out. "We know its a stiff challenge. They've been playing some good cricket but so have we."

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Mark Chapman, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult

Matt Roller from the Wankhede reports: David Beckham is due to be a guest here today with the ICC - he's coming from Ahmedabad where he was working as a Unicef ambassador. He's shown very little interest in cricket before as far as I know - though did say in 2005 when he was England captain that he hoped his team could replicate the "euphoria and atmosphere" of that year's Ashes

Tactics board by Sidharth Monga: Where the India vs New Zealand semi-final could be won (or lost)

Jasprit Bumrah is a species of exactly one, by Osman Samiuddin
Watch out for Shami when he is running like a wild horse, by former India bowling coach Bharat Arun
Kuldeep back for the game he missed four years ago, by Karthik Krishnaswamy

Williamson: When you get to the finals, things again
Glenn Phillips takes centre stage with New Zealand, by Al and Deiva Muthu
Santner needs to be more Santner than Jadeja, by Matt Roller
Killing time with captain Kane, by Yash Jha