Praveen Kumar grabbed three early wickets and Virender Sehwag smashed a superb century as India entered the tri-series final with an emphatic 105-run win over New Zealand on Wednesday.
India, with 10 points from four matches, will clash with Sri Lanka (11 from four) in the final tomorrow. New Zealand finished their league engagements with seven points.
Paceman Kumar finished with 3-34 as New Zealand, chasing a 224-run target, were shot out for 118 in 30.1 overs — their lowest total against India in one-day internationals.
India were indebted to man-of-the-match Sehwag for posting a competitive total as the hard-hitting opener cracked one six and 16 fours in a 93-ball 110 for his 13th one-day hundred.
“He [Sehwag] is the only batsman who seems to be middling the ball well,” Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said. “It was really good to bat with him.”
“In the second half of the game, the bowlers did the job for us. We give Praveen the new ball because he has a good control over his swing. Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel also did a good job,” he said.
India virtually wrapped up the match when they had New Zealand struggling at 22-4 in the ninth over, with Kumar taking three wickets.
Tail-ender Kyle Mills hammered an entertaining 52 for his second half-century in one-dayers, but his knock came too late to stop India from the winning the match.
Mills hit three sixes and seven fours in his 35-ball knock.
Kane Williamson (13), Grant Elliott (11) and Tim Southee (10) were the others to reach double-figures in New Zealand’s disappointing batting performance.
Fast bowlers Patel (3-21) and Nehra (2-10) were India’s other main wicket-takers.
“The way Sehwag batted, it took the game away from us,” New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor said. “They then bowled full and straight, and made us make tough decisions. The ball has been swinging all through the tournament.”
New Zealand paceman Southee (4-49) and off-spinner Nathan McCullum (3-35) earlier shared seven wickets to bowl India out for a modest total despite Sehwag’s century.
India were tottering at 66-4 in 13 overs after electing to bat when Sehwag propped up the innings with a 107-run stand for the fifth wicket with Dhoni (38).
Southee, Mills and Andy McKay tested the Indian batsmen with pace and bounce in their lively opening spells to help New Zealand seize the early initiative.
Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina all failed to reach double-figures.
Meanwhile, rain delayed the start of play on the opening day of the fourth and final Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s in London yesterday.
Heavy rain had fallen in London over the preceding 24 hours and after clearing briefly yesterday morning, it returned 20 minutes before the scheduled start time of 11am.
England lead the series 2-1.
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