MUMBAI: India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in the first World Cup semi-final at his Wankhede Stadium home ground in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Three of the four previous tournament games at the Wankhede have been won by the team batting first, with the exception of Australia’s stunning defeat of Afghanistan, where Glenn Maxwell’s remarkable 201 not out secured a three-wicket victory.
Both unbeaten tournament hosts India and New Zealand were unchanged.
India’s Virat Kohli needs one more century to set an outright new one-day international record of 50 hundreds after he drew level with retired former team-mate Sachin Tendulkar’s mark of 49 against South Africa.
India won all nine of their pool matches but were pushed hard by New Zealand during a four-wicket success in Dharamsala last month.
New Zealand, by contrast, lost four games before qualifying for the knockout stages.
Four years ago, the Black Caps defeated India in a World Cup semi-final in Manchester that spanned two days because of rain.
India are bidding for a third one-day international World Cup title to add to their 1983 triumph in England and 2011 victory over Sri Lanka in a Wankhede final.
New Zealand, the finalists at the last two World Cups, have yet to lift the trophy.
Wednesday’s winners will face either five-time champions Australia or South Africa, who meet in Thursday’s second semi-final in Kolkata, in an Ahmedabad final on Sunday.
Teams
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wkt), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson (capt), Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wkt), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
