Till Sunday, two teams were unbeaten at the Cricket World Cup 2023 – the Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team and the New Zealand cricket team. So, their clash at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala was sort of a decider as to which team was the best after the first few round of matches at the Cricket World Cup 2023. To add intrigue to the contest, the Indian cricket team had not been able to win against New Zealand in a Cricket World Cup match since 2003. However, that record changed as India beat New Zealand by four wickets.
Virat Kohli (95) led India’s chase against a good New Zealand bowling attack as the host side kept its all-win record intact at the Cricket World Cup. After India’s win, the bromance of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli took the spotlight, the video of which was shared by the ICC on its instagram handle.
In another video that has gone viral in social media, the duo can be seen leaving a place in teh same car. It is not clear, however, when the video was taken.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma travelling in the same car. pic.twitter.com/RaXrGMJByG
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 23, 2023
New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell feels Indian star Virat Kohli’s sublime knock of 95 was the difference between the two teams in their World Cup match here.
Mitchell smashed 130 off 127 balls and shared a century stand for the third wicket with Rachin Ravindra to help New Zealand reach 273 on Sunday.
But Mitchell’s knock did not prove to be enough as Kohli anchored the chase to take India home in 48 overs. “He’s a world class player and he’ll go down as one of the greats of the game for a reason.
“A very good knock under pressure I thought and although he didn’t get 100, he got his team across the line,” Mitchell said after the four-wicket loss on Sunday.
Mitchell praised New Zealand’s bowling effort and said the conditions got better for batting under lights.
“…us as Kiwis, we’ll just keep throwing punches, we’ll keep trying different things and we’ll keep trying to take wickets.
“I’m just really proud of our bowling unit tonight and how they tried to do that for periods of time and in conditions which probably got better with the dew with the wicket.” The right-handed batter said the Kiwis were 20-30 runs short of what could have been a winning total.
“You obviously always want more runs, but at the same time I thought the platform that we set and the way we wanted to go about it was in true Black Caps style.
“So, for us, we’ll just keep chipping in and we’ll work on a few things, and we’ll be good to go next time,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was aggressive against Kuldeep Yadav early on in his innings and the Kiwi said his plan was to put pressure on the in-form Indian wrist spinner.
“I’ve known Kuldeep for a while now, he’s a great man and we get on well off the field and yeah for me it’s just keep trying to find ways to put pressure on their bowlers, it’s not just him it’s the same with every bowler that we come up against,” he said.
“It’s about trying to find ways to put pressure on them. He’s done really well over the last few years for India and it’s awesome to see him have some success.
With PTI inputs
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