ICC World Cup 2019: 1st Semi-Final, IND v NZ – New Zealand Player Ratings

Not often you’d see a one-day game pan out over two days. It was one of those rare instances when the game had to extend into the reserve day due to a rain interruption. New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first in the semi-final against India. The Kiwi batsman had a tough time with the ball swinging and lost Martin Guptill early in the game.

Henry Nicholls crawled to 28 while skipper Kane Williamson played a good knock and scored a fifty. However, he couldn’t cling around for too long. New Zealand lost James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme as well for paltry scores on the first day. Ross Taylor and Tom Latham, the overnight batsmen, couldn’t make a massive impact. An excellent run-out by Ravindra Jadeja put curtains on the former’s innings. In the end, the Kiwis struggled their way to 239/8 in 50 overs.

India got off to that kind of a start that no one would have ever dreamt of. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul could only score 1 run each and they were down to 5/3. Dinesh Karthik also got out for just 6 runs bringing the team down to 25/4. Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya kept India interested briefly but they both fell without able to make much of a difference.

Yet, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja still kept faith in their ability. The latter took the responsibility to accelerate and played the knock of his life. He scored 77 runs off only 59 balls before he got out while the former Indian skipper mustered 50 runs off 72 balls. However, their efforts weren’t sufficient as India fell short of the target by 18 runs. New Zealand now enters their second consecutive World Cup final and knocked the favourites out.

Here are the New Zealand Player Ratings for the match

Martin Guptill – 4/10

Martin Guptill had an extremely tough time out in the middle. He found it extremely tough against Jasprit Bumrah and could hardly score any runs off him. The Kiwi opener took 14 balls but only scored 1 run before he edged one to Virat Kohli in the slips. Guptill, though, pulled out the rabbit out of the hat on the field to run MS Dhoni out at the stage when India seemed to be getting close to the target.

Henry Nicholls – 3/10

Henry Nicholls did well to counter the tough conditions early on in the game. He was cautious and took a while to pile on a few runs. But, the 28 runs that he scored off 52 balls were critical for his team. Though, he threw his wicket away as Ravindra Jadeja got through the gate at an important stage of the game.

Kane Williamson – 8/10

Kane Williamson played responsible cricket when the conditions were tough. He started slow but caught up eventually. The New Zealand skipper played an exceptional knock and scored 67 important runs. Moreover, he was exceptional with his captaincy and made some excellent moves even under extreme pressure.

Ross Taylor – 8.5/10

Ross Taylor, the veteran in the side, made the difference when it mattered the most. His 74 runs off 90 balls might not seem to be match-winning. However, given how the pitch has played and keeping the external factors in mind, this was a great knock. This might have potentially made a massive difference when things boiled down to the wire.

James Neesham – 5/10

James Neesham had a tough outing in this game. He scored 12 runs off 18 balls and got out while trying to play an ambitious shot. But he had a good day with the ball. Neesham picked up the wicket of Yuzvendra Chahal towards the end of the innings. He had to bowl the difficult overs of the game but did a good job.

Colin de Grandhomme – 2/10

Colin de Grandhomme try to hasten the pace of scoring when he walked out to bat. But, unfortunately, he couldn’t stick around in the middle for a long time. De Grandhomme bowled 2 overs with the ball where he conceded 13 runs.

Tom Latham – 2/10

Tom Latham scored just 10 runs with the bat on the first day. But on the second day, he had a great time behind the stumps. He took a regulation catch to dismiss Rohit Sharma. However, the catches to dismiss KL Rahul and Yuzvendra Chahal were brilliant.

Mitchell Santner – 8.5/10

Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya were well set when Mitchell Santner came into the attack. The fans hoped that this duo would milk some quick runs off his overs. However, he was unbelievable and gave nothing away. His first two overs were maidens and he got both these batsmen out. In his 10 overs, Santner conceded 34 runs.

Matt Henry – 9.5/10

Rohit Sharma has looked invincible throughout the World Cup 2019. He has hardly had any blips during the course of the tournament. To dismiss that man with a gem of delivery was something special. Henry also picked up the wickets of KL Rahul and Dinesh Karthik finishing with 3/37.

Trent Boult – 9.5/10

The way Trent Boult set Virat Kohli up is something that you’d want to watch over and over again. He bowled some balls way outside the off-stump and got the ball back in twice. When he did that the second time, Virat set himself up for a wide delivery and got his foot across. Thus, he didn’t have the right kind of balance to play the shot and was trapped LBW. Boult also got the massive wicket of Ravindra Jadeja when he was looking threatening.

Lockie Ferguson – 6/10

Lockie Ferguson had a decent outing in this match. The fast bowler got the better of Bhuvneshwar Kumar towards the end of the innings. He hit his lines and lengths really well and didn’t give the batsmen many opportunities to get after him. Ferguson returned with the figures of 10-0-43-1.