India take on New Zealand in the first semi-final of the 2019 ICC World Cup on Tuesday. The encounter at Old Trafford in Manchester will be the first time these two teams will be playing each in this edition of the marquee 50-over tournament. Their match in the league stage was washed out without a ball being bowled.
Both teams head into the crunch game in contrasting form. While two-time champions India topped the points table and earned comfortable victories in their last two matches, the Black Caps are on a three-match losing streak.
However, Virat Kohli and Co won’t be taking the Kiwis lightly at all. Kane Williamson and his men were in pole position for a major part of the league stage and have ample resources to defeat any team on their day.
India will take heart from the fact that they have a better head-to-head record against New Zealand in One-Day Internationals. The two teams have played each other 106 times and the men in blue have emerged victorious on 55 of those occasions, with five no results.
Having said that, New Zealand hold the advantage as far as head-to-head in World Cup matches is concerned. Keeping aside the abandoned game earlier in the ongoing tournament, the two teams have played each other seven times in World Cups with the Kiwis winning four of those.
The two sides will meet at an ICC event in this format for the first time since 2003: a wait of 16 long years will be over in Manchester.
Let’s take a look at all the previous matches played between India and New Zealand at ICC ODI events.
June 14, 1975, Manchester – New Zealand won by 4 wickets
Indian captain Farokh Engineer won the toss and elected to bat. Quite a few of the batsmen got starts but it was Syed Abid Ali, batting at No 7, who scored a 98-ball 70 and took his team to a total of 230/10 in 60 overs. Right-arm pacer Brian McKechnie was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers with figures of 3/49 from 12 overs.
In reply, New Zealand captain Glenn Turner scored a century opening the batting to take his team to a comfortable victory and earn the player of the match award. The right-hander scored an unbeaten 114 off 177 as they finished with 233/6 in 58.5 overs. Abid Ali was the most impressive Indian with the ball as well, returning with figures of 2/35 from 12 overs.
June 13, 1979, Leeds – New Zealand won by 8 wickets
Asked to bat first, India could manage just a paltry 182/10 in 55.5 overs. Opener Sunil Gavaskar was the top-scorer with 55 runs off 144 balls. McKechnie was once again the best Kiwi bowler as he earned figures of 3/24 from his 12 overs.
New Zealand finished with 183/2 and chased down the target in 57 overs. Opener Bruce Edgar, named player of the match, remained unbeaten on 84 runs off 167 balls to take his team home. Mohinder Amarnath opened the bowling and was the only Indian who managed to get a wicket, that of future India coach John Wright. He had figures of 1/39 from his 12 overs.
October 14, 1987, Bengaluru – Indian won by 16 runs
It was the first of two meetings in 1987, both of which India won.
New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe won the toss and elected to bowl first. India, recovering from 21/3, got to a respectable total of 252/7 in 50 overs, with Navjot Singh Sidhu [75 off 71], skipper Kapil Dev [72 not-out off 58] and wicketkeeper Kiran More [42 not-out off just 26] shining with the bat. Off-spinner Dipak Patel, with figures of 3/36 from 10 overs, was the pick of the bowlers for New Zealand. More and Dev’s unbeaten 8th wicket stand of 82 was the highlight of the innings.
The match turned out to be a tense encounter as opener Ken Rutherford [75 off 95] and No 4 batsman Andrew Jones [64 not-out off 86] powered the chase. But the visitors fell short in the end as they finished with 236/8 in 50 overs. Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri picked two wickets each for India but it was Dev who was declared the player of the match for his effort with the bat.
October 31, 1987, Nagpur – Indian won by 9 wickets
A memorable match for India, for more than one reason.
The two teams met again in the league stage of the ’87 World Cup and it was India who once again came out on top. New Zealand skipper Crowe won the toss and opted to bat first. The visitors posted 221/9 in 50 overs, with Patel getting a 51-ball 40 in the middle order. Chetan Sharma had a good day with the ball for India as he bagged three wickets for 51 runs from his 10 overs. He created history by becoming the first ever Indian to take an ODI hat-trick. It was also the first time a hat-trick was achieved in a World Cup match.
The hosts coasted to victory thanks to a belligerent century from Gavaskar, in what was his penultimate ODI innings. The opener slammed an unbeaten 103 off 88 balls as India finished with 224/1 in 32.1 overs. Krishnamachari Srikkanth scored a 58-ball 75 and Mohammad Azharuddin was not out on 41 off 51. And that, as it turned out, was Gavaskar’s only ODI century.
Both Gavaskar and Sharma were declared the players of the match.
March 12, 1992, Dunedin – New Zealand won by 4 wickets
The Kiwis won the toss yet again and opted to field first. India could manage just 230/6 in 50 overs, largely due to the 127-run partnership between skipper Azharuddin [55 off 98] and Sachin Tendulkar [84 off 107]. Right-arm medium-pacer Chris Harris got three wickets for 55 runs from nine overs. It was the innings that highlighted Tendulkar’s penchant for strokeplay at the biggest stage. It was also his highest ODI score back then.
Batting at No 3, Andrew Jones remained unbeaten on 67 off 107 to guide New Zealand to 231/6 in 47.1 overs. Opener Mark Greatbatch won the player of the match award for his 77-ball 73. For India, Manoj Prabhakar had a decent day with the ball and returned with figures of 3/46 from his 10 overs.
June 12, 1999, Nottingham – New Zealand won by 5 wickets
This was the first World Cup in which Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were all playing. But the result was one to forget for India. Captain Azharuddin won the toss and chose to bat first. His team got to 251/6 in 50 overs on the back of Ajay Jadeja’s 76 off 103. For New Zealand, right-arm pacer Chris Cairns got 2/44 from his 10 overs.
In reply, the Black Caps chased down the total with 10 balls to spare. Opener Matt Horne [74 off 116] and player of the match Roger Twose [60 not out off 77] took their team to 253/5 in 48.2 overs. Debasis Mohanty got 2/41 from his 10 overs but the Indian bowlers had a disappointing day overall.
March 14, 2003, Centurion – India won by 7 wickets
Asked to bat first after Indian captain Ganguly won the toss, New Zealand struggled to stitch together partnerships and were bowled out for a mere 146 in 45.1 overs. Their skipper Stephen Fleming scored 30 off 59 but he didn’t get any support from the rest of the top order. Zaheer Khan did the star turn with the ball as he snatched four wickets for 42 runs from his eight overs and won the player of the match award.
In reply, India were in serious trouble as they lost Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar and Ganguly with just 21 runs on the board. But that was going to be the only success New Zealand had on the day. Mohammad Kaif [68 not out off 129] and Dravid [53 not out off 89] then got together to put on an unbeaten 129-run stand as India finished with 150/3 in 40.4 overs.
October 15, 2000, Nairobi - New Zealand won by 4 wickets (ICC Knock Out)
The above encounters were all at the World Cup... there is one match at the ICC Knock Out (as the Champions Trophy was called back then) that almost every Indian fan growing up in the 90s will remember.
India were on fire in Nairobi, defeating the likes of Australia and South Africa in the all-knockout format. Tendulkar and Ganguly were in glorious form in the tournament, and continued their onslaught against the Kiwis in the final as well: a match they started as firm favourites. Having been asked to bat first, the Indian openers put on 141 for the first wicket. Ganguly went on to score a century too [117 off 130 balls]. But from 220/2, India collapsed, starting with the wicket of Ganguly. In the last 7.3 overs, they managed to add just 44 more runs, finishing with 264/6 on board.
In response, the Kiwis were tottering at 82/3 and then 132/5, with all their big names back in the pavilion... except Chris Cairns. An epic 102 not out, battling a dodgy knee, was enough to help New Zealand clinch their first ever major trophy in what was a thriller of a match. A 122-run stand for the sixth wicket with Chris Harris was the highlight as Kiwis won the match in the last over with two balls to spare.
“This is the greatest ever,” Cairns, the player of the match, said. “I’ve been playing for a few years now - getting pretty old - and this is far and away the greatest moment of my New Zealand career. New Zealand’s never got to a final before, let alone won it, so this is just the best.”