A pitch controversy surfaced right ahead of the high-octane ODI World Cup semifinal between India and New Zealand at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on November 15, which Men in Blue won by 70 runs.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was accused of altering the Wankhede pitch at the last minute to favor the Indian team. However, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson remained played down these claims, admitting that the pitch was indeed used but of good quality and that New Zealand had no issues with it.
In the post-match press conference,"No, I mean, yeah it was a used wicket, but a pretty good surface really, as we saw. I mean, they got plenty out of it in the first half of the match. And conditions, I guess they change as they go under lights and things, and that's what we've seen throughout this competition. That's fine, that's what you expect and they played really well. So yeah, I mean it's disappointing to get to this stage and not go further, but also at the same time you sort of reflect on the seven weeks rather than a couple of small moments and we lost to a better side."
"They're the best team in the world and they're all playing their best cricket, so that's tough. And I think we see in cricket - often it's surrounded with failure and how you deal with it. The way they've played throughout this tournament has been incredible. They haven't missed a beat really and to come into a semi-final, you go through your round-robin and you try and get to the stage and it starts again but the way they came out and played, yeah, shows the mindset that they have and the space that they're in and I've got no doubt they'll go into that next match full of confidence," Williamson concluded.
Talking about the match, India rode on brilliant centuries from Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer to post a mammoth total of 397/4. While Kohli etched his name in cricket history by scoring a record-breaking 50th ODI century, Iyer scored a robust 105 off 70.
New Zealand, in response, managed to score 327 all out in 48.5 overs, largely due to a solid 181-run partnership between Kane Williamson, who scored 69 runs, and Daryl Mitchell with a remarkable 134-run knock. However, their efforts were overshadowed by Mohammed Shami's outstanding bowling, as he ended with figures of 7/57.
India will lock horns with either South Africa or Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023 final on November 19.
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