India vs New Zealand: Team India's new-found aggression proves to be the difference in past and present

If India had been guilty of playing the occasion and not the match in past knockout games of ICC events and allowing the situation to overwhelm them, then on Wednesday, it was the impostors who took the field against New Zealand in the first semi-final of the 2023 Cricket World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

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On Wednesday, Team India was a far cry from what they had been in the big games of ICC events over the last 10 years which has led to the ongoing one-decade long ICC title drought.

On Wednesday, India blew away New Zealand in the very first innings, taking control of their fate by once again sticking to their new-found principles of staying aggressive from the word go.

The Kiwis deserve the praise for making the semi-final as competitive as possible but frankly, once India got to an ODI World Cup knockout record score of 397/4 on the ground where no team had scored 300 while chasing in the tournament and the lowest score batting second had been 55, it was kind of known who was going to win the game.

Moreover, this wasn’t the first time India did something like this. The nine victories ahead of the semi-final triumph were laid on the same principles, still, it was refreshing to see the team repeat the fresh approach when it mattered the most.

IND vs NZ: Rohit credits India for staying calm during semi-final

The Men in Blue had never beaten New Zealand in a knockout match of an ICC event in their cricket history. It was the Black Caps who had agonisingly eliminated India from the semi-final stage four years back in the 2019 World Cup. The Men in Blue had lost eight knockout matches in ICC events over the last 10 years.

Pressure, what pressure?

The typical thing for them would have been to be nervous, but not for this team. Rohit Sharma’s men carry no baggage and have no hangover.

The captain, who has led the change from the front with his uber-aggressive batting in the powerplay, touched upon the same ahead of the semi-final.

“That’s the beauty of this team. We weren’t even born when we won the World Cup in 1983. Half of them were not playing when we won in 2011. I don’t see them talking about how we won our previous World Cups,” Rohit had said on the eve of the semi-final.

“The focus is on how we can get better and how we can improve. That’s the beauty of the current crop of players. From game number one, the focus is to win today.”

That assessment proved true to every word in the semi-final.

Defiant in the face of multiple odds and uncaring about the past, India, who have scored the most runs in powerplay (687) in World Cup 2023, were off to a filer, scoring 84 in the first 10 overs with Rohit, the batter with most powerplay runs (354) and the highest strike rate (133) in the first 10 overs, smashing 47 off 29 balls to set the tone.

From thereon, they never took their feet off the gas.

Superstar Virat Kohli brought up a world-record 50th ODI ton, Shreyas Iyer scored his second consecutive hundred and KL Rahul blasted 39 not out off 20 balls as India made the highest score for an ODI World Cup knockout game.

Multiple match winners

Kane Williamson (69) and Daryl Mitchell (134) fought doggedly in reply, but the target was too steep and the pressure was too much. Honestly, New Zealand weren’t at their efficient best in the semi-final.

The Kiwis made it to the finals of the last two World Cups on the back of their self-belief and a brand of cricket whose backbone is efficiency. But the Indian storm hit them so hard in the semi-final that before they could recover from it and attempt resurrection, the game had slipped out of their hands.

On the contrary, India were not only aggressive but efficient to the hilt.

If attacking cricket is the catalyst for the revolution in Team India’s fortunes, teamwork is the secret of their consistency.

They are free of their dependency on individual brilliance.

Against New Zealand, the batters gave the bowlers a more than defendable score and Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav in return paved way the way to the final with a record spell of 7/57 and excellent death bowling respectively.

Final! That’s the next game for this ‘new’ Team India.

Their next opponent is still not decided, but one thing is certain, regardless of who it is and what happens in the final, unlike the past, pressure won’t be their undoing.