Team India registered a hard-fought win over New Zealand in the 21st match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. India won the toss and opted to bowl.

Put into bat, New Zealand lost their in-form openers very quickly. However, Daryl Mitchell smashed 130 and helped the side put up 273 runs as well. Mohammed Shami picked up a fifer for India. While chasing, India’s openers got off to a steady start. However, they also faced a quick struggle before Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja sealed the deal in the 48th over. Kohli top-scored with 95.

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Who said what after the match?

Rohit Sharma: Good start to the tournament. Job is half done. Important to stay balanced. Not to think too far ahead. Important to stay in the present. Shami took the oppurtunity with both hands. He has the experience in these conditions and is a class bowler. At one stage, we were looking at 300 plus. Credit to our bowlers at the back end. I am enjoying my batting. Both are different personalities but we (Him and Gill) compliment each other. Happy that we won.

Nothing much to say. He (Kohli) has done this for us so many years. He backed himself to do the job. Kohli and Jadeja pulled us back when we lost a few wickets in the middle. The fielding is something we pride ourselves on. Today the fielding wasn’t clinical. Ravindra Jadeja is one of the best fielders in the world. These things happen. We know that fielding is something that will decide a lot of things going forward. We love travelling and playing in different parts of the game.

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Tom Latham: We played reasonably well. We didn’t quite capitalize in the last 10. We left a little out there. But credit to India. We weren’t able to get the double breakthrough with the ball. Rachin and Mitchell had a fantastic partnership to set us up for the last 10. We have a perfect group. We want to be in those positions. Rachin with the bat, Daryl with the 100. The bowlers did well. He played a fantastic innings. He controlled the tempo for them for others to bat around him. Just try to be proactive and focus on the matchups a little. Another good innings from him. We have a few days off. We have a day game here. We want to do good stuff.

Mohammed Shami, who won the Player of the Match said: Got a lot of confidence after taking a wicket on the first ball. If your team mates are doing well, you should support them, it’s important that the team performs well, I understand that. It was important to pick those late wickets, you always want your team to be the top side. Very happy that I got those wickets and India is on top of the table..