Team India entered the final of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 with a comprehensive 70-run victory over New Zealand in the first semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Wednesday (November 15).
After the game, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar slammed the critics for suggesting that the pitch for the semi-final was changed to benefit the Indian spinners.
Ahead of the semi-final, Daily Mail had accused the BCCI of changing the pitch. As per the report, the original pitch was supposed to be fresh i.e. Pitch 7 but a call was made to shift it to Pitch 6, which had already been used in the league stage of the tournament.
“This was such a good pitch to bat on. We got almost 400 runs from one team and 320-odd runs from the other team. All those morons who were talking about how the pitch has been changed and how this has been done to do the Indian bowlers a favour, I hope they will just shut up instead of taking potshots at India just to get some eyeballs. Nonsense! Even if the pitch was changed, it was changed before the toss. The same pitch was used for both the teams. It wasn’t changed in mid-innings or after the toss was done. Pitch is the same for both teams. You play on the same pitch and you win… India has done that,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan had tweeted before the first semi-final that a fresh pitch should be used for the match.
Gavaskar added, “Think people should stop talking about pitches! Already they (critics) are talking about Ahmedabad. The second semi-final has not even been played and you’re talking about the pitch being changed in Ahmedabad. Nonsense!”
Meanwhile, the ICC has issued a press release to clarify about the pitch being changed for the semi-final clash between India and New Zealand.
“Changes to planned pitch rotations are common towards the end of an event of this length, and has already happened a couple of times. This change was made on the recommendation of the venue curator in conjunction with our host. The ICC independent pitch consultant was apprised of the change and has no reason to believe the pitch won’t play well,” ICC’s statement read.
Coming to the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. Riding on centuries from Virat Kohli (117 off 113) and Shreyas Iyer (105 off 70), the hosts racked up a mammoth 397/4 on the board. Shubman Gill (80* off 66) and Rohit Sharma (47 off 29) set the tone with a 71-run opening stand.
In reply, Daryl Mitchell slammed a brilliant century but it went in vain as the Kiwi innings folded for 327 in 48.5 overs. Pacer Mohammad Shami starred with the ball for India, returning with a seven-wicket haul (7/57) in his 9.5 overs.
