India vs New Zealand, 12th Match, Group A at Dubai, Champions Trophy, Mar 02 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

That is all we have for you from Dubai tonight. Hope you enjoy our coverage. On behalf of Ranjith and Ashish, I, Sudarshanan, bid you goodbye. Ciao, folks!

8:10pm A commanding bowling show from India seals their win tonight. At the halfway stage it looked like they fell short with the bat. But the spinners mounted a superb comeback and New Zealand crumbed under the pressure of the climbing asking rate. They collapsed to 6 for 54 to be bowled out for 205. Williamson played anchor throughout but ran out of patience with the required rate climbing. The damage was really done in the middle overs where India's spinners applied the breaks on scoring. They did not pick wickets in heap at that point but never allowed even set batters to score. Mitchell, Latham and Phillips all tried changing gears but failed. India's four-pronged spin attack could be tough to contend with, especially in the absence of dew in these conditions.

Varun Chakravarthy, Player of the Match: "I did feel nervous in the initial stages. Not played a lot for India in ODIs, so was nervous. As the game progressed, felt better. Virat, Rohit, Shreyas, Hardik everyone was talking to me and asked me to calm down. Found out last night about play. Was expecting to play for the country and looking forward, but was nervous. It was not a rank-turner but if you bowled in the right places, it helped. The way Kuldeep, Jaddu, Axar bowled, even the pacers. it was a total team effort."

After the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai, where India had suffered an early exit, Varun wondered if he would ever play for India again. He has now reinvented himself and returned to Dubai in grand style. Varun's coaches reveal the secrets behind behind his renaissance.

Mitchell Santner, NZ captain: "A slower wicket than what we have come up against. India controlled the middle phase. Shreyas batted well and Hardik finished off. Spun more than we thought, spun more than the other games here. Four quality spinners makes it tough. Key for us was wickets in the powerplay. Kane's form nice for us. South Africa are a quality side. In those wickets with pace and bounce, they have good four pacers."

Rohit Sharma, India captain: "Very important for us to finish on a high. New Zealand a good side, playing well in the recent past. Axar-Shreyas partnership was important after losing wickets in the first powerplay. They got us to good total, with our quality bowlers, we had the confidence to defend that. Varun has got something different, wanted to try and see what he had to offer. We got to think a little about what to do for the next game, good headache. If he gets it right, very difficult to read him. Momentum critical in such a short game. Try and win game, try and do everything right. Mistakes happen but correcting that is important. It is going to be a good game. Australia have a rich history of playing well in ICC tournaments. About us to do things right. We have to be focussed on what we need to do on that day. Looking forward to that, hopefully we can stitch one towards us."

Mustafa Moudi : "Fun Fact: New Zealand Becomes the Semi-Finalist to lose a Game in Group Stage. Seems to be the only edition where 3 Semi-Finalists entering the Knockout Stage Unbeaten!!"

Phani: "All the other 3 semifinalists would be hoping for a India loss - Aus to reach final, NZ and SA to avoid travel"

Will O'Rourke is the last man in

Kyle Jamieson

rssampat: "Santner should have began the attack when Williamson was batting. Williamson had to take risk and he got out. Had this attack begun by the other batsmen, williamson could have batted safetly and this could have been different" I felt Williamson lost his patience at the wrong time, could have carried on for a couple of overs at least and this match would have had a different look

Varun is back on, change of ends for him