The ghost of Manchester has been buried in the city of dreams. The curse of semi –finals is now a thing of past as Ahmedabad’s own theatre of dreams, the 1.3L seater narendra modi stadium is now waiting to water the cabinet that has dried since 2013. The 10 match juggernaut had a very anti-climatic beginning…..

Rohit 0, Ishan 0, Iyer 0, the iconic scoreboard at M.A. Chidambaram stadium read not so iconic score. India 2/3. Australians had run through the mighty Indian batting. Once again, the hopes of 1.4 billion Indians lied on shoulders of one man. It was kohli again. It’s always him.

Today is 16^th November, The nation is overjoyed as India has produced a perfect 10. Winning all the league matches and then wreaking havoc on the silent killers New Zealand in the semi-final.

Winning the toss at wankhede meant only one thing- The Rohit Sharma show. The veteran Indian batter unleashed an all-out attack on the kiwi pace battery. Sharma’s strategy of taking down the opposition’s bowling attack in powerplay saw no change of plans. Riding on 4 huge sixes and as many elegant 4’s, Sharma’s innings of 47 off 29 gave India a sigh of relief against the arch rivals. The young prince of Indian batting, Shubhman gill showed class and propelled the Indian batting which was firing on all cylinders. Before succumbing to hamstring, gill cut the strings of new Zealand’s already struggling bowling unit.

The man on mission, virat kohli showed no compassion and launched an assault on the ball with a paintbrush, his bat. The batting maestro dominated the middle overs alongside shreyas Iyer who is nowadays launching the balls into the orbit. Kohli completed his record-breaking 50^th ODI century which took him past the greatest batter, sachin Tendulkar. Kohli now sits alone aloft the tallest summit in limited overs cricket. Iyer took the charge after kohli had done the damage. Iyer’s 70 balls- century made sure that the target inched closer to 400. KL Rahul provided the finishing touches with his quick-fire 39 off 20 balls.

Hoping for a miracle, New Zealand’s openers tried their best to counter the Indian bowling. Devon Conway started the proceedings with fours. The man of the moment, Mohammed shami struck on his spell’s first ball and later removed the in-form rachin ravindra to make things worse for new Zealand. Daryl Mitchell, who scored 130 against India earlier in this WC, showed no signs of backing down. Kane Williamson and Mitchell took the charge and kept the kiwis in the hunt. Till 32 overs, New Zealand kept the chase in control and were beginning to give India the flashbacks of 2019 where the kiwis snatched the victory after trailing in the first innings. Shami came to rescue once again when he sent Williamson back to the hut. Tom Latham could not deal with pressure and got dismissed without troubling the scorers. It was practically over for the kiwis at this point as the hopes now rely on Mitchell. Though Mitchell completed his 100 but in the end India completed a 70-run win and booked tickets for the Grand finale. Mohammed Shami grabbed 7 wickets in the innings which is a first of its kind performance in the WC knockouts. The fact that it was a 70-run win but still felt like a close game shows India’s dominance throughout the tournament.

All roads now lead to Ahmedabad where Rohit and Co. will put everything on line to bring the cup home. The Josh is high, so are the stakes.