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India vs New Zealand Semi Final Player of the Match: The Rohit Sharma-led team India made it to the final after 12 years after defeating New Zealand by 70 runs in the semi-final of the World Cup 2023. Earlier India reached the final of the 2011 World Cup where they won their second title by defeating Sri Lanka. There were three heroes of India’s victory in this semi-final against New Zealand. After the early dismissal of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli took charge of the innings and scored the historic 50th century of his ODI career. After this, Shreyas Iyer stormed to his century to take India’s score to 397 runs. In bowling, Mohammad Shami took 7 wickets and won the match for India. All three players performed brilliantly, but Shami was awarded the Player of the Match for his 7 wicket haul.
Shami created many records with his 7 wickets. He became the first bowler to take 7 wickets in the World Cup. Apart from this, this was his fourth 5-wicket haul in his World Cup career and he became the first bowler to do so in a World Cup. Shami became the highest wicket-taker for India in the World Cup with 23 wickets. Earlier this record was held by Zaheer Khan (21). Shami also became the first bowler to take 7 wickets in ODIs for India.
IND vs NZ semi-final: Apart from Kohli, Shami, five heroes of Team India’s memorable win
After these special achievements, when Shami came to collect the player of the match award, he said, ‘I was waiting for my turn. I didn’t play white ball cricket much. I had in mind, we talk about a lot of things like yorkers and slower balls. I tried to take the wicket with the new ball. I try to take as many wickets as possible with the new ball. I dropped the catch of the can, I felt bad.
He continued, ‘I tried to increase the speed. He was playing his shots. So, I took a chance. The wicket was good. There was no fear of dew, the grass was well cut, there were enough runs. If there had been fog, the situation could have worsened. Slower balls didn’t work either. I feel wonderful. It’s a huge stage, we lost in the semi-finals of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. I am trying to take advantage of the opportunity that has been given to me. We don’t know when we will get such an opportunity again.