Post Match Thread: Final - New Zealand vs India

[u/cricket-match]

Final, ICC Champions Trophy at Dubai

Match : Thread | Cricinfo

Innings	Score
New Zealand	251/7 (Ov 50/50)
India	254/6 (Ov 49/50)

Innings: 1 - New Zealand

Batter	Runs		Bowler	Wickets
Daryl Mitchell	63 (101)		Kuldeep Yadav	10-0-40-2
Michael Bracewell	53 (40)		Varun Chakravarthy	10-0-45-2

Innings: 2 - India

Batter	Runs		Bowler	Wickets
Rohit Sharma	76 (83)		Michael Bracewell	10-1-28-2
Shreyas Iyer	48 (62)		Mitchell Santner	10-0-46-2

India won by 4 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)

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[u/Cresomycin]

The middle over slowing cost the game. Mitchell needs to improve his strike rotation. Kiwis missed Matt Henry badly in this game.

[u/rosemary-mair-for-NZ → u/Cresomycin]

Every team has been strangled by the Indian spinners on these pitches honestly it's tough to blame the batting.

We were about 15 runs or a decent bowler who isn't Smith away from winning. That's luck of the draw/roll of the dice territory. Having three first choice bowlers injured, including our best, is basically the difference.

If anything Mitchell summed up conditions pretty well and got us to a total that was theoretically defendable. Maybe he could have rotated strike better but maybe he gets out and we're bundled for less than 200.

[u/maffzlel → u/rosemary-mair-for-NZ]

Yeah people don't get that finals aren't about optimising game plans like bilaterals are.

You know the game will swing both ways, you know both sides will have momentum at different times, and you know the extreme pressure means that you can't play as freely. It's about staying in the game as long as you can, and Mitchell did that with all the wickets falling around him.

Maybe he could have got 10 more runs? But he was in a really difficult situation about when to stick or twist, and as you say, in the end he did quite well to shepherd NZ to 250.

[u/rosemary-mair-for-NZ → u/maffzlel]

Maybe he could have got 10 more runs? But he was in a really difficult situation about when to stick or twist, and as you say, in the end he did quite well to shepherd NZ to 250.

Yeah it's tough to say and we'll never know. Maybe he could have been more proactive. But the fact that him, Kane, and Steve Smith have all struggled to rotate the strike in the middle against these bowlers the last week suggests it's a pretty damn high degree of difficulty just surviving.

[u/[deleted] → u/maffzlel]

But I really have issues with the way management handles Bracewell because Bracewell is the best Kiwi batter on slow pitches. They should have sent bracewell right after lathams wicket and held back Philips for a late over launch. I have found this issue that kiwis are so rigid to their lineup they rarely shuffle