So far, South Africa has been the only host nation to fail to advance beyond the first round. In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups. The other teams are assigned to different “pots”, usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation.
Adam Milne gave away 15 runs in the first over, but conceded 15 from the next 3 and also picked up a wicket. Short and wide, Williamson rocks back, opens the face of the bat and guides it past short third. Mitchell backs away a little, clears the front leg and hammers the ball past a wide mid-off. Too short this time as Kane Williamson sways away from it. Kane Williamson shimmies down the track and lofts it towards long off for a boundary.
Martin Guptill top edges the ball to Shardul Thakur right after he smashed a boundary off Bumrah. Guptill was looking threatening so far, hitting three boundaries, but he’s perished for 20 runs. Pandya comes into the attack and starts with a dot ball. The rest of the balls are all worked away for a run apiece. India still have three more matches left in the tournament, against Namibia, Afghanistan and Scotland. But their chances of making it to the semis are now slim.
After losing their tournament opener to Group II leaders Pakistan, New Zealand restricted India’s lauded batting line-up to 110 for seven before rattling off their victory target with more than five overs to spare. The Ludhiana-born Sodhi, who took the prized wickets of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, said Santner’s spell in the middle overs also helped the other bowlers. India have lost their two games with big margins and hence, are also down on the Net Run Rate, which may prove to be a factor if India manage to win all of their remainder of the Group games. And welcome to the live coverage of the blockbuster clash between India and New Zealand being played at the Dubai International Stadium in the UAE.
With continental qualification pathways leading to an exciting finals event, it brings fans together around the passion and love for the game. The final leg of the FINA Swimming World Cup 2021 will be held in Kazan. Important documents related to the event can be found here. Put in to bat, India’s rejigged top order wilted in no time and the 2007 champions crawled to in 20 overs.
Says that they build pressure throughout and the bowlers did the job for them. Tells that India are strong but they try and focus on their cricket. Mentions that Sodhi has been a brilliant T20 bowler and his experience playing across the world helps them.