SPORTS

India continued their winning run in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 by breaking their knockouts hoodoo against New Zealand. The Men in Blue defeated New Zealand by 70 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to reach the final of World Cup 2023.

India broke their jinx against the Kiwis by beating them for the first time in knockout encounters in ODI World Cups. With this win, India reached the final of the ODI World Cup for the fourth time in their history.

A confident Team India arrived at the Wankhede on the eve of their World Cup semifinal against New Zealand on Wednesday to train under lights.

As it was an optional net session, vice-captain and wicket-keeper KL Rahul, No.4 bat Shreyas Iyer, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami and opener Shubman Gill chose to give the nets a miss. It has been a practice that the team has followed to give the players the choice whether to train or not, especially when the team has had travel and a game closely bunched.

Rohit Sharma’s aggressive batting template has made things easy for the other batters in the ICC World Cup 2023.

The Men in Blue won all their nine games in the tournament and will face New Zealand in the semis at the Wankhede Stadium on November 15.

Rohit and Shubman Gill gave another flying start to the team against the Netherlands, adding 100 runs in the first powerplay overs.

India star Virat Kohli went past New Zealand youngster Rachin Ravindra to become the highest run-getter at the end of the league stages of the ongoing World Cup 2023. Kohli reached the landmark during his 51-run knock against the Netherlands in the last group-stage match at Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

With the latest knock of 51 on Sunday, Kohli took his overall tally for the tournament so far to 594 as semi-final-bound India looked set for a massive score in the last group match in Bengaluru. Virat Kohli reached his fifty in 53 deliveries, displaying his batting finesse with five boundaries and a well-timed six.

Australia (AUS) will take on Bangladesh (BAN) in the 43rd game of the ODI World Cup 2023 on Saturday (November 11) at the Maharashtra International Cricket Stadium in Pune. Australia have won six out of eight games and have qualified for the semi-finals. Bangladesh managed to win just two matches out of eight and are currently in the third-last position on the points tally.

Australia faced Afghanistan in their last game. They chased down the target of 292 runs in 46.5 overs. Glenn Maxwell was amazing with the bat and played a historical innings. He made 201 runs off 128 deliveries, helping Australia cross the line despite losing the first seven wickets for just 91 runs. No other Australian batter managed to make more than 25 runs in that game.