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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Match preview: India vs New Zealand, Mumbai (2pm AEDT; 8.30am GMT; 7.30pm AEST)
The unstoppable force and the shape-shifting body
India is dreaming of the World Cup, and that has nothing to do with the fact that they are unbeaten in it. This is just a byproduct of their planning leading up to the tournament. They left in 2019 needing… more. So they went out looking and tried out as many as 50 different players over the course of four years and 66 games. Six months after the start of the tournament, they were able to identify who they wanted and focused on honing their skills. In 15 international matches between March and October 2023, they were selecting all their XIs from a pool of 24 players.
Expect a cautious start. Each team tries hard not to make the first mistake, not so much trying to outsmart the opponent as outsmart them. New Zealand are masters of this art. Just stay in the game long enough for there to be a chance of breaking through.
Team news
India (Possible) 1 Rohit Sharma (captain), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Muhammad Siraj
New Zealand (Possible) 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rashin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Mark Chapman, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Bolt
Advantage: Jasprit Bumrah is exactly one type
If you’ve seen him, you’ll instantly realize that the tone he sets at the start of the innings is as unforgiving as McGrath is wont to set. Forget scoring, how are they expected to survive this?
Tactics Board: Don’t lose the game within the first 15 overs
MUST WATCH: Aaron Finch on how Australia knows how to win
News headlines
Preparing for the semi-final: There is no denying that David Warner is the GOAT in ODI
Of all the ODI greats Australia has produced, Warner stands head and shoulders above them, with the lack of matches he has played highlighting his exceptional production. At the World Cup finals, when the pressure was at its peak, he raised his performance to a level only the elite could achieve.
Mark Nicholas: In South Africa’s quest for the future, there is no room for sadness about the past
To fully understand this, you need to revisit three license plates. The first, at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1992, read “South Africa need to win by 22 runs from one ball”. Ridiculous – blame mathematicians. Although South Africa’s slow interest rate has tipped the equation strongly in England’s favour.
The second, at Edgbaston in 1999, when only one run was counted from the last four balls of the match, with Lance Klusener, the unbeaten player in the tournament, scoring the strike. More of that in a minute.
The third, at Kingsmead in Durban in 2003 – which, to be fair to the South African champions, was a tight Duckworth-Lewis stint – showed one run needed from one ball when the middle-on batsmen thought no one was needed.
