Hosts India aim to maintain their perfect campaign and secure a place in the grand finale when they face a confident New Zealand in the first semi-final of the World Cup at Wankhede Cricket Stadium Wednesday.
India are in blistering form as they have won all their nine games in the group stage and remain the only unbeaten team in the tournament so far.
But since it is a semi-final and the opposition is New Zealand who have played the last two World Cup finals, there is no margin of error for Rohit Sharma and Co, despite their impressive winning run.
The Wankhede is a ground that offers plenty of runs and it will be battle of the star-studded and in-form Indian batting line-up against the experienced and well-balanced New Zealand bowling attack.
The Wankhede, with a capacity of around 33,000, is poised to turn blue in color in the galleries as the home crowd will cheer loudly for their star players and hope they reach another World Cup final, just like in 2011 when they won the tournament eventually.
India lost to New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final in the last edition in Manchester back in 2019 and this Indian team are well aware of the Kiwis who are consistent in global events and played the last two finals in 2015 and 2019, and also contested the Twenty20 World Cup final in 2021.
“Whenever we've come up against New Zealand, obviously, probably the most disciplined team in terms of how they want to play the game. And they play their cricket very smartly. They understand the opposition quite well,” said India captain Rohit Sharma at the Wankhede Tuesday.
“And they've been very consistent for so many years now, playing in the International Cricket Council events. So we do understand what they bring to the table and how they play their cricket. We have been closely following all the teams as to where their strength lies, where their weakness lies. And based on that, we try and go out there and play the game,” he added.
While India have won all their group stage games, the Black Caps started the tournament well with four straight wins, before losing the next four.
Crucially, they won their last match against Sri Lanka and qualified for the semis.
Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson though said the results in the group stage are in the past now.
It is the knockout stage, a fresh start and whoever plays better cricket will win Wednesday.
“I think every game in this tournament is a tricky one. I think as we've seen throughout, any team can beat anybody on the day, and that's obviously the quality in both sides, but also the changing conditions and that has an impact. For us, it's great to have got to the final stages and then take a fresh approach (for semi-final) because it does start again,” said Williamson.
The match will start at 2pm local time.
