It was the result a nation craved. A record breaking 50th hundred for Virat Kohli and victory for India to send them careering into Sunday’s final.
They won a terrific semi-final by 70 runs but New Zealand’s pluck ensured it was no walkover. Many teams would have rolled over after conceding 397 and been gripped by dark thoughts of a conspiracy caused by the late pitch swap.
It takes strong leadership and incredible mental strength to put up a fight in a cauldron like the Wankhede Stadium filled with 33,000 blue-shirted screaming devotees, revved to the maximum by their hero Kohli, who chest bumped David Beckham after his century, saying it all “feels like a dream.”
Daryl Mitchell, a 32 year-old who has blossomed late in his career, is about as far removed from the superstar Kohli as you can imagine; an understated New Zealand cricketer who is probably not even a celebrity in his hometown of Hamilton.
Like Kohli, he grabbed this stage, silencing the Wankhede every time he found the boundary, which he did with nine fours and seven sixes in a valiant 134 from 119 balls before becoming the fifth wicket of Mohammad Shami’s seven for 57 on a night of startling individual performances.
New Zealand went out with heads held high but then they always do, don’t they? Defeated by a whisker in the 2019 final and runners-up in 2015, this generation of players will not retire with the medals they deserve.
None more so than their captain Kane Williamson whose 69 off 73 balls gave them hope in a 181 run stand from 149 balls for the third wicket with Mitchell that inflicted on India their first case of the jitters at this World Cup - Shami dropped Williamson and keeper KL Rahul messed up a run out.
At 220 for two and 178 needed from 18 overs, New Zealand had an outside chance of pulling off a run chase for the ages but Shami had Williamson caught in the deep off a slower ball and knocked over Tom Latham leg before in a one-two to the solar plexus. Glenn Phillips is built like a boxer and he threw his arms at everything, hitting 41 in a 75 stand with Mitchell, but Jasprit Bumrah’s slower ball did for him. Shami, who had knocked over the two openers, returned to finish it off at the death to complete the best bowling figures of the tournament.
India’s victory was a team effort but it will be Kohli’s innings that will be the reference point whenever this match is discussed in years to come. As he reached his hundred, Kohli dropped to his knees to pay homage to Sachin Tendulkar, sat high up in the VVIP seats next to Beckham, giving respect to the man whose record for the most ODI hundreds he had just broken. Twelve years ago a young Kohli carried Tendulkar around the outfield at the Wankhede Stadium on the night India won their last World Cup final.
Now he is the nation’s hero, the batting god who has lit up the World Cup like all great players do in big tournaments. This was his third hundred of the competition, the eighth score above 50 in ten innings and he now has scored more runs in a World Cup with a match to go, 711, than any other player before. Seize the moment? He grabbed it with both arms and hugged it close to his chest. “The stuff of dreams. If I could paint a perfect picture, this would be it,” he said, picking out in the stands his hero Tendulkar and wife, Bollywood star Anushka Sharma. Tendulkar needed 463 games to score 49 hundreds, Kohli has beaten his record in 291, a remarkable achievement.
Kohli paid credit to his team-mates because the work of others allowed him to play his own way. Rohit Sharma belted the new ball to all parts in 47 off 29 balls that rattled New Zealand in the powerplay and put down a marker. Shreyas Iyer smashed the quickest hundred in a World Cup semi-final, off only 67 balls, whacking three fours and eight sixes while Kohli picked his spots and ran hard, his 117 a masterpiece from 113 balls. Shubman Gill’s 80 from 66 before he pulled up lame completed the set.
New Zealand bowling figures were a mess: Tim Southee three for 100 off ten overs, Trent Boult one for 86. Whether the pitch made any difference is hard to say. It was slower than usual which may have affected Boult and Southee but neither are the bowlers they were anyway.
It is a shame they swapped the pitch because India do not need to resort to anything underhand. They are a fantastic cricket team, far and away the best at this World Cup. When a cricket board is so closely aligned with a political party as the BCCI is with India’s ruling BJP, dirty tricks are seen as part of life. As political beasts they will know the only message that matters is the one that lands with a home audience and few India followers will care about pitches as long as their team wins.
The pitch did not make a huge difference, more than 720 runs were scored on a night when the bat dominated. India’s spinners, who you would expect to exploit a worn surface, took one wicket between them. The fact the pitch was last used 11 days ago helped, it was long enough for it to play fresh enough.
Mainly it was their superb seamers, led by Shami, who were just impossible to wriggle free from despite Mitchell’s lone stand. He ran out of partners and was caught on the legside boundary trying to flail a six as the run rate escalated out of control. Beckham said this was his first time watching cricket in India. He can pick his moments.