India put Kiwis through the blender in Champions Trophy clash

Dubai: This was apparently a dead rubber, but thankfully, no one had told the protagonists that.

India and New Zealand had already made it to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy, Sunday’s final league fixture would only decide the Group A topper. With the first semifinal on Tuesday and the second 24 hours later, the sides could have been excused for taking it a little easy, inasmuch as one can take a competitive game a little easy, but there was no shortage of intensity or drama at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

New Zealand have had the better of the exchanges between the sides in ICC tournaments while India came into this contest having won the last five One-Day Internationals between the teams. Something had to give; what gave, was New Zealand’s batting, their slide triggered by a late entrant into India’s Champions Trophy squad.

Varun Chakravarthy was a surprise, last-minute inclusion, making him the fifth spinner in a party of 15. Overlooked for the first two matches, the leg-spinner from Chennai was eventually given a go on Sunday and responded in style, with a maiden five-wicket haul in only his second ODI to catalyse India’s 44-run victory and the bragging rights as they finished on top of their group.

India’s reward is a shot at Australia in the last-four tie at this same venue on Tuesday; the Kiwis will take on South Africa in Lahore a day later.

Chakravarthy’s ODI debut in Cuttack against England a fortnight ago was promising but hardly stunning. His Sunday show, however, was most definitely that; his five for 42, just rewards for an excellent outing on a helpful surface, sent New Zealand packing for 205 after India, batting first for the first time in the tournament, rallied to 249 for nine on the back of Shreyas Iyer’s patient 79.

Iyer was forced to rebuild in Axar Patel’s company once India lost Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli with just 30 on the board inside the first seven overs. Matt Henry has always enjoyed bowling against India and he was at it again, trapping Gill in front and having Kohli wonderfully caught at point by Glenn Phillips, diving full length to his right in his first spell, before returning at the death to pick up a five-wicket haul of his own.

There is no gainsaying what India would have ended up with had Iyer and Axar not batted with common sense. There was a plethora of dot balls – 64 in the first 15 overs alone – but neither allowed that to work on their minds, focusing on occupation of the crease in the optimism that the loose balls would come along. When they did, Iyer put them away with conviction and Axar followed suit, India wending their way through the middle overs and eyeing a spectacular finish that would boost the total to the 270-run range.

The fall of Iyer, on the pull, and a well-set KL Rahul within ten runs of each other pegged them back, but it also allowed Hardik Pandya to showcase his utility with a run-a-ball 45 that turned a potentially middling total into a competitive one. 250 didn’t appear humongous but it would test the Kiwis, given the profusion of spin riches in the Indian side.

Pandya packed off Rachin Ravindra early, after which it was a trial by spin of the Kiwi batters. Will Young promised briefly until Chakravarthy had him with a googly though as always, it was Kane Williamson who held the key. India took their eyes off the ball at various stages, letting the former skipper off twice, but when Williamson walked past Axar’s last ball of the night and was stumped on the inside edge by KL Rahul, it was all over bar the shouting.

Chakravarthy nipped skipper Mitchell Santner’s dangerous cameo in the bud and dismissed Henry in the same over for his fifth wicket, rounding off a satisfying night for the 2013 champions.