MANCHESTER: India have been on a roll in World Cup 2019. An unexplained blip against England aside, they’ve been the best team of the tournament so far.
Their opponents – New Zealand – are a different story.
After a solid start that saw them cruising past some of the relatively less fancied teams, the Black Caps barely managed to make it to the last four on the basis of a superior run-rate than Pakistan.
So when the two teams clash in the first World Cup semi-final here at Old Trafford on Tuesday, India would be the overwhelming favourites.
But India captain Virat Kohli is taking nothing for granted.
He warned that New Zealand were a quality team and the Indians will have to bring their A-game to Old Trafford in a bid to reach Sunday’s finale.
“Both teams are experienced enough to have played these games,” he told reporters here on Monday.
“New Zealand were in the final last time and they know how to play knockout games, they have had a wonderful World Cup again. So they are a quality side,” he said.
“But on the day, whichever team is more brave in being calculated I think that team stands a better chance to win. So yeah, we understand that combination. We have made it to a lot of knockout games and finals. So it is up to both the teams to bring their A-game and whoever handles pressure better is the team that is going to come out on top. We certainly are looking forward to doing that.”
It was 11 years ago that Kohli and his opposite number Kane Williamson came face to face as rival captains at the under-19 stage.
Kohli admitted that he would never have predicted that he and Williamson would one day be meeting in the Men’s World Cup semi-finals.
Back in 2008 when the Under-19 World Cup was held in Malaysia, Kohli dismissed Williamson as he guided India to a narrow three-wicket win.
“I remember in 2007 we went to New Zealand and we were playing an Under-19 Test match and Kane played a shot off one of our fast bowlers, who was quick, off the back foot,” Kohli recalled.
“I remember standing in slips and telling guys standing at slip: “I have never seen anyone play a shot like that,” and he was special, along with a couple more guys, which didn't make it surprisingly.
“But he was always the stand-out player and you could see when we played New Zealand in New Zealand on that Under-19 tour and the World Cup again he was quite special for them.
“So we always knew he has the special ability to go all the way and now he's controlling the tempo of the game for New Zealand every game that he plays and he's contributing so well.
“He's a lovely guy. We get along very well. So he's always been the main guy for them, along with Ross (Taylor), who has performed really consistently as well. Those two guys have shared the load so far and a lot will depend on them obviously because they have been playing well and getting both of them early will be crucial because we know how strong they can be together in a partnership.
“I'll remind Kane (about 2008), I'm sure he remembers. It is quite a nice thing to realise that 11 years later we are captaining our respective nations again in a senior World Cup from Under-19s.
“It's a really nice memory and we'll both feel good about knowing that this is happening and no-one, neither me nor him, could have ever anticipated that one day this will happen.”
Kohli, who is the world’s top-ranked batsman, is yet to really fire in the World Cup despite playing a series of substantial innings. While he is yet to score a century in the tournament, his team-mate Rohit Sharma has hit a record five tons.
Kohli acknowledged that currently Rohit is the world’s number one ODI batsman.
“It's been a different kind of role that I've had to play in this World Cup and, as the captain of the team, I have been open to playing any kind of role that the team wants me to,” he said.
“It's great that Rohit is scoring so consistently which means that coming in the later half of the innings you have to play a different role which is controlling the middle overs and letting guys like Hardik (Pandya), Kedar (Jadhav), MS (Dhoni) in the past few games, and now Rishabh (Pant), come out and express themselves.
“I think playing a team sport you need to adapt and I'm very happy doing that role and I hope he gets two more so we can win two more games. It's an outstanding achievement.
“I have never seen anyone get five hundreds in a World Cup, or any tournament.
“He has been outstanding and he deserves all the credit. According to me, he is at the moment the top ODI player in the world,” Kohli said.
