India has scored a hat-trick of wins in the Champions Trophy by defeating New Zealand. Team India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in the last league match played in Dubai. With this, it has also been confirmed which team India will compete in the semi-finals. The Indian team will face world champion Australia in Dubai on March 4 in the semi-finals. The second semi-final will be played between New Zealand and South Africa in Lahore on March 5. Spinner Varun Chakraborty emerged as the hero in India's victory. Varun sent 5 New Zealand batsmen to the pavilion. Varun took 5 wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. India has entered the semi-finals by topping the table with 6 points. Team India completed a hat-trick of wins by defeating Bangladesh, Pakistan, and New Zealand in the current tournament.

Chasing the target of 250 runs set by India, New Zealand's team collapsed for 205 runs in 45.3 overs. Kane Williamson scored the highest 81 runs for the Kiwi team. Williamson hit 7 fours in 120 balls. Captain Mitchell Santner played an innings of 28 runs while opener Will Young scored 22 runs. For India, Varun took 5 wickets Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets and Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya took one wicket each. With this, the Indian team also settled a 25-year-old account with New Zealand. The Kiwi team had defeated India in the final of the Champions Trophy in 2000 and deprived them of the title.

Earlier, despite a half-century by Shreyas Iyer (79), New Zealand restricted India to 249 runs for 9 wickets due to the excellent performance of the bowlers led by Matt Henry. Henry took five wickets for 42 runs in eight overs. He got good support from the other bowlers of the team. Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke, captain Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra took one wicket each for New Zealand. New Zealand fielders saved crucial runs by taking some amazing catches.

India lost three wickets for 30 runs in the first seven overs. But Iyer played a restrained innings of 79 runs with the help of four fours and two sixes in 98 balls and also shared a 98-run partnership in 136 balls for the fourth wicket with Axar Patel (42) to recover the team from a bad start. He also shared a 44-run partnership in 42 balls with Lokesh Rahul (23). Axar hit three fours and a six in his 61-ball innings. In the last overs, Hardik Pandya scored 45 runs in 45 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes to take the team close to 250 runs.

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