On the back of a nine-match winning streak, host India will take on New Zealand in the first semifinal of the ICC ODI World Cup on Wednesday.
Having tasted success in the group stage fixture, the men in blue will have a good sense of what the Kiwis will bring to the table
Powered by an explosive start from skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s masterful innings that followed, India registered a comfortable win against New Zealand earlier in the tournament
However, all is not well for Rohit’s men.
The four-wicket win in October was India’s first against New Zealand in over 20 years in an ICC competition
India has been on the receiving end of most ICC tournaments when they faced the might of New Zealand in the recent past
In the past two decades, India has managed just two wins out of the eight times it has faced New Zealand across formats
India’s most recent loss against New Zealand in an ICC event came in the World Test Championship final where the Virat Kohli-led team succumbed to an eight-wicket loss
India is yet to win a game against New Zealand in T20 World Cups, the latest being its eight-wicket humbling in the group stage of the 2021 T20 World Cup
A more relevant area of concern would be the ODI World Cups, where India has a record of three wins and five losses against the Kiwis
The match that saw “that Dhoni run-out” in the 2019 ODI WC semifinal will fall under the same bracket
India came into the knockouts in red-hot form with a solitary loss– against eventual world champion England– and was expected to reach the final until New Zealand happened
Matt Henry and Trent Boult combined to make early inroads and left India reeling at 24/4 within the first PowerPlay
Defiant fifties from M.S. Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja were not enough at the end of the day as India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs and crashed out of the tournament
India will enter Wednesday’s semifinal under similar circumstances and will look to abolish the demons of its past to reach the final hurdle
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