Kiwis expose India's flaws despite Jadeja's heroics

Manchester - Twice champions India were reeling at 24-4 in their chase for a modest victory target of 240 runs

New Zealand survived Ravindra Jadeja's late onslaught to stun India by 18 runs in a low-scoring thriller on Wednesday and reach the World Cup final for the second time in a row.
Twice champions India were reeling at 24-4 in their chase for a modest victory target of 240 in what had appeared to be a lop-sided semifinal.
Jadeja (77) partnered Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a century-plus stand but India were bowled out for 221 in the final over and New Zealand will play hosts England or defending champions Australia in Sunday's final at Lord's.
Opting to bat first in the rain-hit contest played over two days, New Zealand's 239 for eight looked far from imposing.
Once Matt Henry (3-37) and Trent Boult (2-42) exposed India's fragile middle-order by removing the top-three - Rohit Sharma (1), KL Rahul (1) and Virat Kohli (1) - the writing was on the wall for the Men In Blue.
Then Mitchell Santner struck two crucial blows in the middle overs to suck the life out of India's chase.
Henry dismissed Rohit, the World Cup's leading scorer, and Boult trapped Virat Kohli lbw in the next over.
India's captain reviewed the decision but could not get it overturned.
The horror continued for India as Rahul became the third Indian top order batsman to depart for one, Henry's second caught-behind victim.
Jimmy Neesham took a magnificent left-handed catch to dismiss Dinesh Karthik as India slumped to 24-4 in 10 overs.
Rishabh Pant added 47 runs with Hardik Pandya to arrest the slide and Pant made 32 before his wild heave off Santner found Colin de Grandhomme near the mid-wicket boundary.
Pandya, struggling with a hip injury, also made 32 before throwing away his wicket.
Jadeja injected fresh excitement into the match with his brave counter-attack that left his team needing 90 runs off the last 10 overs with four wickets in hand.
He and Dhoni (50) kept India afloat in the chase which was eventually derailed when both fell in successive overs.
"We thought we had restricted them to a total that is chaseable on any surface," Kohli said.
"But the way they bowled in that first half an hour was the difference in the game.
"We had a good day yesterday and I'm very proud of that effort. Then it was a professional effort with the ball this morning and we had the momentum.
"But credit to the New Zealand bowlers - the way they bowled with the new ball, moving it around, it was an outstanding skill level on display and they made life very difficult for our batsmen."
Williamson had won the toss on Tuesday and opted to bat at a venue where teams batting first had won all five previous matches in the tournament.
India's new ball pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-43) and Jasprit Bumrah bowled with impeccable discipline while Jadeja was also very economical with the ball.
Resuming on the reserve day at 211-5, New Zealand added 28 runs from the remaining 23 deliveries as Ross Taylor top-scored with a gutsy 74 to go with Williamson's 67.
Jadeja proved his value as a fielder with a pinpoint throw to run out Taylor and in the next delivery, took a well-judged catch near the ropes to dismiss Tom Latham.

Scoreboard New Zealand M. Guptill c Kohli b Bumrah 1 H. Nicholls b Jadeja 28 K. Williamson c Jadeja b Chahal 67 R. Taylor run out (Jadeja) 74 J. Neesham c Karthik b Pandya 12 C. De Grandhomme c Dhoni b Kumar 16 T. Latham c Jadeja b Kumar 10 M. Santner not out 9 M. Henry c Kohli b Kumar 1 T. Boult not out 3 Extras (lb5, w13) 18 Total (eight wickets, 50 overs) 239 Fall: 1-1, 2-69, 3-134, 4-162, 5-200, 6-225, 7-225, 8-232 Bowling: Kumar 10-1-43-3, Bumrah 10-1-39-1, Pandya 10-0-55-1, Jadeja 10-0-34-1, Chahal 10-0-63-1 India KL Rahul c Latham b Henry 1 R. Sharma c Latham b Henry 1 V. Kohli lbw b Boult 1 R. Pant c De Grandhomme b Santner 32 D. Karthik c Neesham b Henry 6 H. Pandya c Williamson b Santner 32 MS Dhoni run out (Guptill) 50 R. Jadeja c Williamson b Boult 77 B. Kumar b Ferguson 0 Y. Chahal c Latham b Neesham 5 J. Bumrah not out 0 Extras (lb3, w13) 16 Total (all out, 49.3 overs) 221 Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-5, 3-5, 4-24, 5-71, 6-92, 7-208, 8-216, 9-217, 10-221 Bowling: Boult 10-2-42-2, Henry 10-1-37-3, Ferguson 10-0-43-1, De Grandhomme 2-0-13-0, Neesham 7.3-0-49-1, Santner 10-2-34-2

• ICC World Cup 2020