New Zealand had no business giving India the nervous moments they did in a defence of 397 but India eventually made mockery of the supposed knockout pressure as they waltzed into the final, now one step from possibly the most dominant World Cup campaign. The average victory margin for them now is 175 runs, 6.4 wickets and 69.4 balls remaining.
In doing so, Virat Kohli went to a mindboggling 50th ODI hundred in front of his wife, in front of the man he went past, Sachin Tendulkar, and at a ground where the torch was metaphorically passed 12 years ago when he carried Tendulkar on his shoulders. Sheryas Iyer scored a second straight century, at 67 balls, the third-fastest by an Indian in a World Cup, all three in this edition.
One of those three centuries belongs to the selfless Rohit Sharma, who again set India up with yet another blazing start of 47 off 29, the ninth time this year that he has got out in 40s, 80s or 90s, the joint-highest number for a calendar year.
It is no surprise that India scored the highest total in a World Cup knockout match, which was always going to be plenty at a ground that has shown the most variance in bowling friendliness from afternoon to evening this tournament. As expected, it went from no swing or seam in the afternoon to appreciable movement in the air and off the surface, followed by surprising prodigious turn and no dew, but Daryl Mitchell scored a scarcely believable 134 off 119 only for Mohammed Shami to thwart them with 7 for 57.
Brief scores:
India 397/4 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 47, Virat Kohli 117, Shreyas Iyer 105, Shubman Gill 80*, K L Rahul 39*; Tim Southee 3-100) beat New Zealand 327 in 48.5 overs (Kane Williamson 69, Daryl Mitchell 134, Glenn Phillips 41; Mohammed Shami 7-57)
(Cricinfo)
