As he did earlier in this tournament against India in Dharamsala, Daryl Mitchell hit another brilliant century against the hosts. But, once again, his ton went in vain as India defeated New Zealand in the World Cup 2023 semi-final at the Wankhede by 70 runs and entered the final.
Daryl Mitchell scored 134 runs in 119 balls and kept New Zealand alive for a long time in their tall chase of the target of 398 runs in Mumbai.
Daryl Mitchell was involved in two significant partnerships – of 181 (149) with Kane Williamson and of 75 (61) with Glenn Phillips. But eventually, Mohammed Shami’s record 7-wicket haul and India’s big total proved too for Mitchell and the Kiwi batters.
Daryl Mitchell’s thunderous hundred kept New Zealand hanging in the chase and this led to a spate of memes on Twitter.
Funny memes on a blockbuster century by Daryl Mitchell vs India in semi-final:
Earlier, India had a bumper batting performance from multiple stars that propelled their total to 398. Rohit Sharma smashed 47 runs in 29 balls, Shubman Gill scored 80 runs, Virat Kohli scored 117 runs, Shreyas Iyer thumped 105 runs in 70 balls and KL Rahul scored 39 runs in 20 balls. Shami took a record 7-fer that helped India defend this total.
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson(c), Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tom Latham(w), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Player of the Match Shami said: “I was waiting for my chances. I didn’t play a lot of white-ball cricket. My return started against New Zealand [in Dharamsala]. We talk a lot of variations, but I still believe in pitching it up and getting wickets with the new ball. I dropped Williamson’s catch, I shouldn’t have. I felt terrible. But the focus was to try and take pace off, see if they’re hitting it in the air. It was a chance we had to take [with the variations]. The wicket was very good, lots of runs were scored in the afternoon.”
