The heartbreaking news for all Indian fans: India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs.

The first semi finals of ICC 2019 were held in Manchester, India vs. New Zealand. India lost to New Zealand by 18 runs on 10 July 2019, Wednesday. Half century by M.S.Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja did not work out for team India as they were out of the match after 221 runs for 10 wickets in 49.3 over. The top three Indian batsmen were sent back to the pavilion after scoring 1 run each. They were Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and team captain Virat Kohli. 

In the second half of the innings Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni made 116 runs from 104 balls. At last India needed 32 runs from the last two overs, but unfortunately the pressure was high and India failed to recover at the end. They couldn’t make it to the finals though. Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was heartbroken after India’s defeat in the semis. 

Reason why India couldn’t make it to the finals: 

After the rain it was hard for team India to chase the run rate, However they gave their best to reach the target but eventually failed by 18 runs. 

1. Rain: Due to rain the match continued for two days. The rain decided the fate of the match. The condition and weather was in favour of New Zealand.
2. Poor start by team India: Team India’s poor performance disheartened all the Indian fans. Back to back Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were sent to the pavilion followed by Kohli with a score of 5 runs for 3 wickets within the first four overs.
3. Captain cool seemed too low: Former captain Dhoni seemed low this time. If he had been sent to the field in number 5 other than 7, they there would have been some chances for India to recover. But this mismanagement and blunder could not be managed by Dhoni and Jadeja at the end.
4. New Zealand: New Zealand should be given all the credits as they played tremendously well in the semi finals and scored 239. The target score pressurized the Indian team. The team (New Zealand) captain Kane Williamson scored 67 runs from 95 balls. He was confident and had faith on his players as all of them gave their best.