The 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup has reached the semi-final stage in the race to play the final on November 19. Here we will collect the latest events and news from the event and bring you our correspondents’ on-the-ground insights.
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Main story: India waltz to final after Shami’s seven centuries and centuries from Iyer, Kohli
India 397 for 4 (Kohli 117, Iyer 105, Gill 80*) won New Zealand 327 (Mitchell 134, Williamson 69, Shami 7-57), a difference of 70 runs.
New Zealand were not to give India the nervous moments they faced in defending 397 but India eventually made fun of the supposed knockout pressure as they reached the final, now one step away from the most dominant campaign in the World Cup. The average margin of victory for them now is 175 runs, 6.4 wickets and 64.4 balls to spare. Australia’s victory in 2007 was 147.67 runs, eight wickets and 89.2 balls to spare.
Match Analysis: School was out as Rohit and Iyer tore up Mumbai’s textbooks
Look at Rohit Sharma’s results in this tournament. A hundred – not a father – a few eights and four turns between 40 and 48. This is an ongoing campaign from all these people talking about conversions, from conversion starters to dozens, extending to landmarks and monuments to skyscrapers. It’s fair to assume that Rohit was one of those guys until recently.
It was an exhilarating thing to watch, perhaps never more so than at Wankhede, when there was something so real at stake, where the cost of failing, of coming off a shot 47 in the sky before the Powerplay finished, was almost as high as it could be. In these innings, and this entire tournament, Rohit has encountered the carefree energy of someone quitting a bad job, or not having to pass an exam because he’s already gone to college, or walking away from an unhealthy marriage, or becoming a committed nudist — energy that is released in a brief detoxification Run for a long term bonus.
Virat Kohli scored an ODI hundred
Fifty now. Big Five Oh. Virat Kohli has cemented himself in the history of the sport by passing one of cricket’s greatest untouchable records by leaps and bounds, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 ODI centuries in just over half the time it took a great man. For the generation that grew up with Tendulkar carrying India on his shoulders and leading them to the top of the world game, this seems a ridiculous and unfathomable achievement.
Must-watch: How good is Mohamed Al-Shami?
News headlines
Preview the match
Australia v South Africa, Kolkata (2pm AEDT; 8.30am GMT; 7.30pm AEDT)
Can you feel the ghosts in the machine yet? Creeping from the nooks and crannies of the Gardens of Eden, the most perfect setting imaginable for a barely moving contest for historical baggage. It’s Australia versus South Africa in the World Cup semi-final. And if the mere thought of what’s to come doesn’t tingle your spine in anticipation, then you’re almost certainly dead inside.
Forget everything you think you know about form and fortune, and the fallacy that the best team will always win on their day. Instead, embrace a scenario where every twitch in South Africa’s muscle memory (because, let’s face it, it’s all about them) will feel as if it’s connected by invisible threads, pulling their efforts back through space and time…until 2015, from… Through 2007 to 2003. Through 1999 and 1992… and back to the formless void from which all their pain arose in their first World Cup.
Team news
Australia (Possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Travis Head, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Josh Inglis (wk), 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Pat Cummins (captain), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood
South Africa (possible) 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma (captain)/Rida Hendricks, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaassen, 6 David Miller, 7 Marko Janssen/Andile Phlukwayo, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Kagiso Rabada . , 10 Lungi Ngidi/Gerald Coetzee, 11 Tabriz Shamsi
Advantage: Adam Zampa: Someone who is self-aware and on top of his game
When you see a wrist spinner at the top of its mark and the batsman starts hitting it, what you are seeing is weakness.
However, it’s what happens next that’s the important part, because what happens next reveals how Zampa tends to respond to all those big questions that cricket poses for wrist spinners and, perhaps more importantly, how Australia believes Zampa will respond.
