India storm into their fourth World Cup final at the expense of New Zealand

Virat Kohli overtook Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI century record while Mohammed Shami picked seven wickets to help India crush New Zealand by 70 runs in Mumbai.

One Last Dance. That is probably what Rohit Sharma is whispering to his boys in the dressing room right now. Having won all 10 matches in the World Cup so far, India are just one step short of glory. When they take to the field at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, 11 Men in Blue will be hoping to make it 11 wins in a row to capture their third World Cup title!

Given the way that they’ve played throughout the tournament, India have plenty of reasons to believe that they definitely can. They’ve blown away each and every single side that has come in their way so far and besides those two hours of pressure in the semi-final when Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson’s defences looked impenetrable, Indian fans have had a pretty smooth sailing in the competition.

Of course, it was Mohammed Shami who made that breakthrough and convinced the fans that the ghosts of 2019 had been exorcised. Earlier, Shami was guilty of dropping Daryl Mitchell who went on to score a stunning century against all odds. However, the seam bowling master more than made up for it with a spell that will be remembered decades down the line.

How do you explain a fast bowler picking up seven wickets on a pitch that was rumoured to be controversially slow in the build up to the game and in a match where 724 runs were scored by both sides?

It was Shami who got New Zealand captain Kane Williamson to play a risky shot in order to keep up with the pressure of the asking run rate and he could only find the hands of Suryakumar Yadav on the fence. Two balls later, vice-captain Tom Latham was gone and the tide swung back into the favour of the hosts’.

However, Daryl Mitchell continued to be a one-man show for the Kiwis despite having his back to the wall for most of the innings. He showed plenty of panache after crossing the half-century marked and swept and reverse swept India’s spinners for fun.

Shami, who had earlier dropped him, came back and had the last laugh as he ran through the lower order to secure the best figures in a World Cup knockout game with a spell of 7/57.

Of course, the headlines belonged to Virat Kohli who broke records for fun. After all, this is what he does for a living. At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Kohli not only overtook his idol Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most runs in a single edition of the Cricket World Cup but also went past him after registering his 50^th ton in front of the great man.

Immediately after scraping through the double that got him to the three-figure-mark, Kohli took off his helmet and gloves and bowed towards Sachin and then blew a kiss to his wife Anushka Sharma. It was a who’s who of stars in the president’s box as David Beckham, Siddharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani, Ranbir Kapoor, Rajnikanth, John Abraham, Viv Richards, Mukesh Ambani, and Sachin Tendulkar were all present.

They were also treated to a fantastic century from local boy Shreyas Iyer who scored the fastest ton in men’s ODI World Cup knockouts after getting to the prestigious milestone in 67 deliveries, overtaking the previous record of 72 balls held by Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist. India were also able to count on a late flourish from KL Rahul who slammed 39 off just 20 deliveries to take the hosts’ total to 397/4 - the highest in a World Cup knockout game.

At the risk of not jinxing it, all signs point towards one direction only - the third World Cup star on India’s badge is a matter of when, not if.