In awe of India’s batting icon and his art of chasing totals, former New Zealand pacer Simon Doull said, Virat “lives for it.”New Zealand put up a challenging 273 on the board, which could have been a lot more had Mohammed Shami not bowled a terrific spell in the death overs to complete his five-wicket haul.
Led by Shami’s 5/54, India restricted New Zealand to 54 runs in their last 10 overs while taking six wickets despite Daryl Mitchell’s century (130).
Mitchell also added 159 runs for the third wicket with Rachin Ravindra (75).
But Kohli’s 95 and useful contributions from Rohit Sharma (46), Shreyas Iyer (33), Shubman Gill (26) and KL Rahul (27) kept New Zealand bowlers at bay.
ICC World Cup 2023: India beat New Zealand by By 4 wickets in Dharamshala
India were in a little spot of bother at 191/5, but Ravindra Jadeja’s unbeaten 39 off 44 balls while batting alongside Kohli ensured that India did not miss Hardik Pandya with the bat.
Hardik was ruled out for the match with an ankle injury.
Kohli came close to equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI hundreds but fell while going for a six to complete his hundred and India’s victory, like he did in the match against Bangladesh. Kohli’s attempt for a maximum didn’t find the distance and he got out caught in the deep by Glenn Phillips off Matt Henry.
The knock also put Virat on top of the list of run-getters in this World Cup with 354 runs, followed by his skipper Rohit Sharma (311).
“The clarity of thought to be able to do that from a batting point of view, while all else might be going around you…to have that clarity must be phenomenal,” said Doull talking about Kohli’s knock on Star Sports after the match.
“The way he thinks about it and constructs a run-chase. He lives for it.”
The win made India clear table-toppers with 10 points from five wins in five matches. It was New Zealand’s first defeat of the tournament after four straight victories. They are No. 2.
