In the end, this match lived up to its lofty expectations as both sides demonstrated at various stages today why they deserved to inhabit the top two spots of the standings.
New Zealand survived an early scare in their batting innings to rally back and almost looked on course at one stage for a 300-plus total.
However, India’s bowlers came back fiercely to restrict them to an achievable target.
While India started with a bang, New Zealand began to apply the screws and if it wasn’t for some considered batting, led by the efforts of Kohli’s 95, the chase could have gone a myriad of ways.
India will next face England on October 29, while New Zealand face rivals Australia on October 28.
We hope you enjoyed our coverage of today’s pulsating match, and look forward to you joining us again as we continue to cover select matches.
The Indian victory was scripted by Virat Kohli and a stunning spell from Mohammed Shami, who became the first Indian bowler to pick more than five-wicket haul in ODI World Cups. Shami played in Dharamshala only because ace all-rounder Hardik Pandya had injured his ankle during the match against Bangladesh and India needed to balance his absence by leaving out Shardul Thakur and bringing in Suryakumar Yadav.
Virat Kohli, who was instrumental in India’s victory over Bangladesh a few days ago, produced another masterclass. The ‘chasemaster’ was in sight of his second successive ODI hundred but he fell five runs short. Like in the game against Bangladesh, the runs needed for Kohli’s hundred and the runs needed for India were exactly the same. But with Kohli within touching distance of Sachin Tendulkar’s world record of 49 hundreds, he fell to Matt Henry but Jadeja hit the winning runs in the same over to hand New Zealand their first defeat of the ongoing World Cup. Virat Kohli is now the leading run-scorer in this year’s World Cup and that is a huge statement for a player who brushed off poor form only at the start of the year.
