Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni batted sensibly to guide India to the tri-series final with an emphatic six-wicket victory over New Zealand on Friday.
Raina and skipper Dhoni added 72 crucial runs for the fifth wicket as India recovered from 84-4 to surpass New Zealand’s modest total of 155 with 9.3 overs to spare on a slow pitch in the day-night match.
Raina smashed two sixes and three fours in his unbeaten 45, while Dhoni hit four boundaries in 35 not out.
PHOTO: AFP
India and Sri Lanka have made it to the final after winning their opening matches, while New Zealand have lost both of their games.
Bowlers set up India’s victory when they restricted New Zealand to a small total, with seamer Ashish Nehra and spinner Yuvraj Singh grabbing three wickets apiece. Pace men Ishant Sharma and Rudra Pratap Singh each took two wickets.
Sachin Tendulkar (46) and Rahul Dravid then built on their bowlers’ efforts, putting on 60 for the second wicket after the fall of opener Dinesh Karthik (4) in the third over of the innings.
Dravid, returning to the one-day side after nearly two years, contributed 14 before being trapped leg before wicket by pace man Jacom Oram.
Tendulkar, the world’s leading scorer in Tests and one-day internationals, fell in the next over when he gave a simple catch to Martin Guptill in the covers off left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori.
Vettori put pressure on India when he had Yuvraj caught by Guptill at mid-wicket, but Dhoni and Raina steered their team home under lights.
New Zealand earlier failed to build a big partnership after electing to bat, failing to cope with India’s pace-spin combination. Skipper Vettori top-scored with 25 in his team’s below-par batting display.
New Zealand, who needed a victory to keep alive their hopes after losing to Sri Lanka in the first match, did not last their quota of 50 overs as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Man-of-the-match Nehra rocked the top order when he trapped Jesse Ryder leg before wicket with the third delivery and then dismissed Brendon McCullum in a similar fashion in his next over for his 100th wicket in one-day internationals.
Yuvraj dismissed Grant Elliott (22) and Guptill (22) before accounting for Neil Broom (21).
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