Varun takes five as India top group and set up Australia showdown

India 249 for 9 (Iyer 79, Axar 42, Henry 5-42) beat New Zealand 205 (Williamson 81, Varun 5-42) by 44 runs

India spun a web around New Zealand to defend 249 for their sixth straight win against what has been a bogey team for them in recent times. They added Varun Chakravarthy to the three spinners they already were playing, and he responded with a five-for at a venue where an indifferent showing against Pakistan in 2021 led to a major setback to his international career.

Finishing top of their group, India will now face Australia in the semi-final on Tuesday. New Zealand and South Africa are to fly back to Pakistan for their semi-final on Wednesday.

This was an old-fashioned ODI in which the new ball seamed and swung in the first innings followed by gradual slowing down and increasing grip. Absence of any significant dew meant batting kept getting more and more difficult. Shreyas Iyer scored his slowest fifty followed by Kane Williamson’s slowest score of 80 or above.

Wave after wave of attack from India’s spinners was held back by some luck and Williamson, but eventually they broke the bund starting with Ravindra Jadeja getting Tom Latham lbw on the reverse-sweep in the 33rd over. India bowled 29 overs of spin out of the 30 middle overs, and 37.3 in all for nine wickets and just 166 runs. This was an improvement after their spinners had gone at 0.7 an over more than the opposition spinners in the first two games. Turns out it was only a function of bowling first when the ball gripped less than in the second innings.

New Zealand restricted India largely through seam with Matt Henry taking five wickets and their spinners bowling 25 overs for 128 runs and just two wickets. Henry as usual was spot on with the ball seaming for him and swinging for Kyle Jamieson. In no time, New Zealand had India at 30 for 3 with Glenn Phillips adding Virat Kohli to his highlight reel of spectacular catches.

Iyer and Axar Patel then shored India up with some old-fashioned ODI batting. They went 51 balls without a boundary but didn’t play a rash shot. Iyer went from 12 off 29 to 27 off 35 and went back into his bunker, eschewing any risk before opening up after having faced 63 balls. Axar kept pressing claims to a proper allrounder spot with a mature 42 off 61 in the 98-run stand.

After taking 21 runs off 19 short or short-of-a-length deliveries, Iyer finally fell to a bouncer from Will O’Rourke in the 37th over, a wicket that curtailed India’s ambitions at the death. Still, KL Rahul’s 23 off 29 and Hardik Pandya’s run-a-ball 45, which he scored while also turning down singles when batting with the tail, took India to a challenging total.

Hardik then proved to be a serviceable replacement for Harshit Rana with the new ball, drawing some movement in the first over and then getting Rachin Ravindra caught on the upper-cut. Before long, spin was in, and it was apparent New Zealand were not reading Varun out of the hand, from whom they had collectively faced 34 balls in all T20Is and IPL before this match.

Will Young, a key batter during New Zealand’s Test whitewash of India in India, was the first one to fail to play a wrong’un off the pitch and pay the price. Daryl Mitchell was all at sea too. India had tied the batters down, the asking rate went to six in the 23rd over, and runs only came in drips, a nudge here, a paddle there, and the rare loose ball. How long could they avoid a risk?

It didn’t matter as Kuldeep Yadav had Mitchell lbw with the perfect left-arm wristspinner’s delivery, but it also beat Mitchell’s inside edge by a distance unbecoming of an international batter. He also burned a review, which would cost Michael Bracewell a reprieve later.

The 40-run stand between Williamson and Latham was the smoothest New Zealand batted with Latham’s sweeps and Williamson’s inside-out chips giving them some momentum. At the 30-overs mark, New Zealand had scored exactly half of their target and had seven wickets in hand. However, Jadeja soon turned one past Latham’s reverse-sweep from around the wicket, and bowled it so accurately that it pitched on and turned enough to hit the wicket.

Now the game changed. Williamson would have to carry this chase on his bat if New Zealand were to get close. Varun came back to make even that a near impossibility. Phillips missed an in-drifting half-volley one ball after pulling Varun for a six. Then a significant dismissal followed.

Video analysis suggests Varun tends to bowl wrong’uns with a scrambled seam and legbreaks with the seam straight and tilted to slip. Now, though, he got Bracewell with a legbreak bowled with a scrambled seam, which presents batters and analysts with a new challenge. Also Williamson, probably mindful of only one review left, advised against the review only for the projection to show it hadn’t turned back enough to be hitting the stumps.

Dropped on 17 and 68, Williamson couldn’t make India pay the ultimate price as Axar got the man off his bowling with the last ball of his allotment. The asking rate of nine an over now demanded a risk, and Williamson just walked past a straight delivery.

Mitchell Santner delayed the inevitable, but Varun ended his resistance with his other variation: a medium-pace cross-seam ball bowled at 113ks to rip out the off stump. He had four balls left in which to complete a five-for. It took him two as Henry tried to hit out.

Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo

Varun takes five as India top group and set up Australia showdown

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