India vs New Zealand, 1st Semi-Final (1 v 4) - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Right, so that's an end to India's campaign at the 2019 World Cup. This pattern of bowing out in the knockout stages of ICC tournaments will now be starting to haunt them a bit. Since their win in the 2013 Champions Trophy, they have at least made it to the semifinals everytime but don't have a title to show. This is still a good side though, and bar a couple of changes, will continue to be a force. As for New Zealand, what can one say about them.

 They are forever underestimated, under the radar but do their job efficiently when it matters the most. Successive World Cup final appearances is no joke and they have a chance to go one step further than 2015 this time. For now, they will be resting a bit and waiting to find out who their opponent will be. Is it going to be tournament hosts England or the defending champions Australia? We'll know that tomorrow as the Ashes rivals face off in what should be a cracking game of cricket. This is Hari Sadanandan signing off on behalf of my mates MS Ramakrishnan, Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Sagar Chawla, Vineet Anantharaman, Rishi Roy, Siva and Shashikant Singh. Cheers and good

Williamson: It's a different feeling, to be fair. The surfaces and the way we had to skin it, has been different to the last World Cup we experienced. Have a really good bunch of guys. A tough game, tough semifinal and really pleased to be on the right side of things. It was really tough. We had to assess conditions quickly and I think both sides felt that it wasn't a high-scoring track. We thought that 240-250 will help us to put India under pressure. The guys were able to do that in the middle and at the back end without going too hard. Lot of it was on the conditions, with the rain around yesterday and whether it changed the conditions. With the new ball, our bowlers try to move the ball off the seam or in the air. Need to put pressure on that world class batting line-up of India. We knew that when the track slowed down, we had to squeeze.

 They showed why they are a world class side when they took it really deep to a position where they could have won it through MS and Jadeja. Our character was tested and we came out on top. We've seen conditions be really tricky at times and in some games, we didn't play our best cricket but guys weren't disheartened and backed ourselves. On a particular day, anything can happen and it was a game of small margins. Pleased to come across the line. Indian supporters have been really good.

Kohli: The first half, we were very, very good. With the ball, in the field, we were spot on. We got what we needed at that point. We thought we had restricted New Zealand to a chaseable score on any surface but the way they come out with the ball in the first half-an-hour was what made the difference. We knew we had a good day yesterday and were proud of it. Had a good time in the morning today as well and we had momentum with us. Credit to the New Zealand bowlers, they were really good with the new ball and hit the right areas. I think it was the skill level on display (from NZ bowlers) was there for all to see. I think Jadeja had a really good couple of games and it's his performance today that's a huge positive for his skill-set. MS had a good partnership with him, and again a game of small margins, run out by a small margin. Always feels bad when you play well all tournament and then 45 minutes of bad cricket puts you out. New Zealand deserve it, they put us under more pressure. At times, I think our shot-selection could have been better. Otherwise, we played a really good brand of cricket. Really proud of the way we competed throughout the tournament. As I said, come the knockouts, it's anyone's game and New Zealand showed more composure. They were braver than us and deserve to win. Thanks to all the fans, thanks for coming out in huge numbers.

Matt Henry | Man of the Match | 10-1-37-3: In the break, we talked about making sure we do the best we can and play the way we wanted to play. We started well with the ball and created a lot of pressure. We had to ask a lot of questions against that world-class batting line-up. We knew we had to create pressure against that batting line-up but we also knew that this was a difficult wicket to bat on and it was holding up a little bit. We brought ourselves on and if we could create a few early chances, anything could happen. Hardik and Dhoni, the way they batted with Jadeja to come in, we know they are world-class finishers. We needed to finish off well and get them out before it went too deep. Very special to earn ourselves a Lord's final, thanks to all the New Zealand supporters out there. We are looking forward to the final on Sunday.

India will rue a lot of things in this game, especially in the batting department. The target wasn't really big but the kind of start they got against the swinging ball put them under extreme pressure. Since that fatal CT final of 2017, they had never lost Rohit and Kohli cheaply in the same game, and didn't have a back-up plan for it. 

The batting order was questionable too, with Dhoni being held back to number seven, even as the inexperienced men were sent ahead of him. It still nearly worked but India were guilty of not being smarter, especially during the middle overs where some questionable shots hurt them. They were quite good with the ball of course, but this surface demanded flexibility in approach and the Black Caps were smarter in all three departments of the game. Williamson's captaincy was sensational too and he was calm even when India threatened.