LONDON, June 11 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand bowled themselves into the World Cup with a superb second innings fielding performance here on Wednesday.
A poor first innings total from New Zealand of 239-8 left India as heavy favorites to book themselves a spot at this year's final at Lords. However, New Zealand produced one of the finest swing and seam performances in World Cup history to bowl out the fiery Indian batting lineup for just 221, giving the Kiwis a win of 18 runs.
By the third over of the second innings, New Zealand had India on the ropes at 5-3, with Lokesh Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and star captain Virat Kohli all falling for one run apiece. The pace, swing, and seam from opening bowlers Matt Henry and Trent Boult caused the Indian top order all kinds of trouble, with Dinesh Karthik falling to Henry for an uncomfortable six runs just six overs later.
Indian wickets continued to fall for New Zealand throughout the innings with very little resistance offered by the Indians until MS Dhoni and Ravi Jadeja arrived at the crease in the 22nd and 30th overs respectively. Yet, the New Zealand bowlers kept their line and length and made scoring very difficult for the pair early on.
Dhoni eventually fell to Martin Guptill for 50 of a slow 72 balls, while a flurry of boundaries saw Jadeja push India close to the New Zealand total before he fell for 77 off 59 three overs from the end.
New Zealand will now go on to play either England or Australia in the final who play their semifinal in Birmingham on Thursday.
