With the strong performance of spinner Varun Chakravarthy, India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in the last match of Group A. India's undefeated campaign continued in the group stage and the team finished this stage at the top of Group A by winning all three matches. Varun performed brilliantly for India and took five wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. This is the best performance of any Indian bowler in a debut match of the Champions Trophy. This was Varun's first match in the Champions Trophy and he was successful in shining.

Varun left Shami behind.

Varun left fast bowler Mohammed Shami behind in this matter, who took five wickets for 53 runs against Bangladesh in Dubai in 2005. The record for the best performance in the debut of the Champions Trophy is held by Australia's Josh Hazlewood, who took six wickets for 52 runs against New Zealand in 2017. At the same time, this is also the second-best performance of any Indian bowler in this tournament. Ravindra Jadeja holds the record for the best-performing Indian bowler in the Champions Trophy, who took five wickets for 36 runs against West Indies in 2013.

Will face Australia in the semi-finals

India will now face Australia in the semi-finals on March 4 in Dubai. Australia finished second in Group B. In another semi-final, New Zealand will face South Africa in Lahore on March 5.

Batting first, India scored 249 runs for nine wickets in 50 overs on the back of Shreyas Iyer's half-century. Chasing the target, Kane Williamson scored 81 runs, but New Zealand were all out for 205 runs in 45.3 overs. New Zealand was in a good position at one time, but Varun turned the tide in India's favor with a strong performance. Apart from Varun, Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets for India, while Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja got one wicket each.

Spinners took a total of nine wickets.

Interestingly, India played this match with four spinners and two fast bowlers. The Indian team got the benefit of playing four spinners because all the nine wickets of New Zealand were taken by spinners. Mohammad Shami was the only bowler from India who remained empty-handed. However, he bowled only four overs in this match. This is the first time in the Champions Trophy that spinners have taken nine wickets in a match. India left behind Pakistan in this matter, whose spinners took eight wickets against Kenya in 2017. Apart from Williamson, no batsman from New Zealand could perform well. For the Kiwi team, captain Mitchell Santner scored 28 runs, Tom Latham scored 14, Daryl Mitchell scored 17, Will Young scored 22, Rachin Ravindra scored 6, Glenn Phillips scored 12 and Matt Henry scored two runs. Kyle Jamieson returned unbeaten after scoring nine runs.

Shreyas-Axar made a great partnership.

Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and invited India to bat first, but India did not have a good start and soon lost three wickets. After this, Shreyas and Axar Patel together made a partnership of 98 runs for the fourth wicket. The Indian innings faltered after the dismissal of Axar and Shreyas. However, with the half-century innings of Shreyas Iyer, India was successful in setting a target of 250 runs in front of New Zealand.

For India, Shreyas scored 79 runs in 98 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes. Apart from him, Hardik Pandya scored 45 runs in 45 balls with the help of four fours and two sixes. At the same time, Akshar Patel scored 42 runs in 61 balls with the help of 3 fours and 1 six, KL Rahul scored 23 runs, Ravindra Jadeja scored 16, Captain Rohit Sharma scored 15, Virat Kohli, who was playing his 300th ODI match, scored 11, Mohammed Shami scored 5 and Shubman Gill scored 2 runs. For New Zealand, Matt Henry was the most successful bowler; he took 5 wickets for 42 runs in 8 overs. At the same time, Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke, Mitchell Santner, and Rachin Ravindra got one wicket each.

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