India vs New Zealand semifinal . Who will win?

         India vs New Zealand

Finally the time has come we all have been waiting for; India has reached the semi finals and its India vs New Zealand. It’s the battle between the two sides that haven’t faced a single league match in the tournament. India has finished on the top of the table with 15 points and facing only one loss which was against England and won its rest of the league matches, whereas New Zealand finished at 4^th place with 11 points having 3 defeats which came against Pakistan, Australia and England.

India is lucky that it got New Zealand for semi finals because it is not as good as Australia and England but still it is a very good side. We should not forget that India lost its first warm up game at it was against New Zealand. New Zealand has quality fast bowlers like James Neesham, Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson, and India must watch out for these bowlers. New Zealand also has a decent batting line up with followed by Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Colin Munro. As far as India is concerned it is a well balanced side with world class batting and bowling. The top order of India is in a pretty good touch but our middle order is a concern because India doesn’t have a good number 4 batsman. If we talk about bowling Bumrah is the back bone of the Indian bowling line up, he give crucial breakthrough and can take wickets at will and all the other bowlers like Shami, Chahal and Bhuvneshwar are doing a good job and even Hardik who is our 5^th bowler is also giving breakthrough by his short deliveries and cutters.

Toss

Toss is very important factor and the team who wins the toss will win 50% of the match. I think India should elect to bat first because we have seen that bating second is difficult because the pitch gets bit slow and the pressure of required run rate may result in fall of wickets. So by batting first India should post a decent total and should invite New Zealand to bowl first.

Predicted playing XI (India) 
     ROHIT SHARMA

               KL RAHUL

               VIRAT KOHLI

       RISHABH PANTH

       MS DHONI

        HARDIK PANDYA

         RAVENDRA JADEJA

         YUZVENDRA CHAHAL

       KULDEEP YADAV

     MOHAMMED SHAMI

     JASPRIT BUMRAH

Predicted playing XI (New Zealand)

 MARTIN GUPTILL

COLIN MUNRO

KANE WILLIOMSON

ROSS TAYLOR

TOM LATHAM

JAMES NEESHAM

COLIN DE GRANDHOMME

MITCHELL SANTNER

MATT HENRY

LOCKIE FERGUSON

TRENT BOULT

                                        

Battles to watch for

1. Rohit Sharma VS Trent Boult

Rohit Sharma has not a good history when facing against left arm fast bowlers. In the recent warm up game Rohit Sharma war struggling against Trent Boult and at last he caught LBW on his delivery. Since then Rohit is in red hot form scoring 5 centuries in this edition of world cup. So let’s see who will get an upper edge in tomorrow’s match.

2. Bumrah VS Kane Williamson

It will be interesting to see Kane VS Bumrah as it will be the battle of pace and technique. Kane Williamson must watch out for Bumrah as his pace and variations make the batsman life difficult on the pitch.

3. Rishabh Panth VS Santner

It will be an interesting whether Rishabh will attack Santner because he loves hitting spinners all around the park. But Rishabh but hold his nerves, he has a habit of throwing his wicket. So what do you think who will win this battle?

4. Shami VS Martin Guptill

Shami is in a tremendous form, while struggling Guptill will have to be careful as Shami’s line and length will pose a great threat to not only Guptill but also other batsman.  

5. KL Rahul VS Lockie Ferguison

Though KL Rahul is scoring well but still he is not looking comfortable on the other hand Rahul has to be bewaring of Ferguison’s pace and short balls.

Weather

There will be midnight showers and it is predicted that there is a chance of 20% perception during the match. Hope so rain will stay away and will not spoil the match.

My predictions

·      Toss- New Zealand will win the toss

·      Winner- India