India enter Emerging Players Tournament final by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	National Cricket Academy v New Zealand Emerging Players
Player:	BJ Watling, A Mishra, V Kohli, S Badrinath
Event:	Cricket Australia Emerging Players Tournament 2009

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DateLine: 30th July 2009

 

India beat defending champions New Zealand by five wickets in their do-or-die last league match to reach the final.

 

Virat Kohli (92) again came good with the willow and skipper S Badrinath (81) finally got over his string of poor scores.

 

India now have four wins in the competition and it took the team's tally of points to 17 to finish second. They will meet table topper South Africa (36), who thumped Australia by 183 runs to maintain their clean slate, in the final.

 

Bowling first, leg-spinner Amit Mishra's four-wicket haul helped India restrict New Zealand to 246 for nine before the duo of Kohli and Badrinath guided them to 247 for five in 44.3 overs.

 

Opting to bat after winning the toss, New Zealand got off to a decent start before Bhuvneswar Kumar's (2/38) double strike pegged them back.

 

Sudeep Tyagi (2/56) also dealt two quick blows to halt New Zealand's progress before Mishra (4/44) ran through their middle order which left them in total disarray.

 

Fortunately for the Black Caps, Bradley-John Watling stood amid ruins with an unbeaten 114-ball 94, which was studded with eight fours. He got some support from Indian-born leggie Tarun Nethula (42) as the duo gave some respectability to the Kiwi score.

 

Chasing the modest total, India got off to a scintillating start with Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane (24) adding 48 runs in no time.

 

Then a couple of quick wickets (Rahane and Naman Ojha (0)) pegged India back but the 106-run stand between Kohli and Badrinath steadied the ship.

 

India again lost two quick wickets when Abhishek Nayar (8) and Manoj Tiwari (21) ran themselves out but Badrinath and Wriddhiman Saha (17) ensured there was no more setbacks as they saw the side through.

 

Kohli's 86-ball 92 included 10 fours and a six, while Badrinath played an unbeaten captain's knock of 84-ball 81 that included five fours and a six.