India and New Zealand will contest the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on Sunday and when these teams met in the group stage India came out on top and they will start as firm favourites.
India
India have played all their matches in Dubai and they booked their ticket to the final with a 4 wicket win over Australia in the first semi final on Tuesday. They were invited to bowl first and restricted the Aussies to 264, all out in 49.3 overs (Shami 3/48). Virat Kohli top scored with 84 in the chase and Iyer (45) and KL Rahul (42 not out) helped them get over the line in 48.1 overs.
Earlier India reeled off 3 comfortable wins in Group A. First up they beat Bangladesh by 6 wickets and they followed up with another 6 wickets win over Pakistan.
In their final group match they got the better of their opponents here, New Zealand by 44 runs. They were invited to bat first and recovered from 30/3 to post 249/9 in their 50 overs. The middle order were largely responsible with Iyer top scoring with 79 and Axar (42) and Pandya (45) were the next highest scorers. Varun Chakravarthy then stole the show with the ball, returning figures of 5/42 in his 10 overs as New Zealand's run chase closed on 205 all out in 45.3 overs.
This was how India lined up in their semi final.
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
New Zealand
New Zealand ended South Africa's hopes of winning the trophy with a 50 run victory in the second semi final in Lahore on Wednesday. They opted to bat first and posted 362/6 with two centurions (Ravindra 108) and Williamson (102) supported by Mitchell and Phillips (both 49). On a high scoring ground there was still work to do but Santner's figures of 3/43 and Matt Henry's 2/43 stood out as the Proteas innings closed on 312 all out.
New Zealand finished as runners up to India in Group A with 2 wins and 1 defeat. They booked a semi final place with comfortable wins over Pakistan, 6 wickets in Karachi and Bangladesh, 5 wickets in Rawalpindi. In their 44 run defeat to India Matt Henry claimed 5 of their wickets. Kane Williamson top scored with 81 in the run chase but no other batsmen made it into the 30's.
This was how New Zealand lined up in their semi final
Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 119 times in this format and India have won 61 to New Zealand's 50 with 1 tie and 7 no results
The Betting
At the time of writing India are 4/10 to win this match and New Zealand can be backed at around 2/1
Prices subject to change
The Verdict
India have plenty going for them and haven't had to do any travelling throughout the tournament although the match result odds still look a little lop-sided to me as NZ have generally impressed and I'm focusing on 2 key men for the underdogs.
Mitchell Santner is one of my Player Performance picks for NZ, he may well be needed with the bat in addition to his wicket taking potential. The other is wicket-keeper batsmen Tom Latham who's quote doesn't appear overly high.
Bet: Player Performance Tom Latham over 34.5 at 17/20 with Betway
Player Performance Mitchell Santner over 33.5 at 17/20 with Betway
