World Cup 2019: India bowlers dominate New Zealand before rain forces semifinal postponement

New Zealand will resume batting on Wednesday, the reserve day, at 211/5. They will have 3.5 overs to play before India's batting.

India celebrate the wicket of New Zealand’s Kane Williamson in Manchester on Tuesday (Reuters Photo)

Indian bowlers dominated New Zealand in Manchester on Tuesday before rain forced the first World Cup semifinal to be suspended for the day. New Zealand will resume batting on Wednesday, the reserve day, at 211/5. They will play out the remaining 3.5 overs of their quota of 50 overs. Ross Taylor (67*) and Tom Latham (3*) will resume the Kiwi innings. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have two overs left from their quota of 10 overs each.

With the rain unrelenting, play has been called off for the day. New Zealand will resume their innings tomorrow at 10.30am on 211/5 with 3.5 overs to bat.

Here’s hoping for better weather tomorrow 🤞#INDvNZ | #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/p9KdXPdd0g

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 9, 2019

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first. India skipper Virat Kohli, speaking at the toss said he would have opted to bat first as well.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah bowled a fiery new ball spell, which the Kiwi batsmen found hard to deal with. The first run in the innings came off the 17th ball. Martin Guptill (1) was cleaned up early by Bumrah. Kane Williamson (67), again having to come to his side’s rescue early on, yet again anchored the innings. Henry Nicholls (28) was with Williamson till Ravindra Jadeja scalped his wicket, prompting Ross Taylor to join Williamson. Williamson and Taylor put up a 65-run partnership, before Williamson was caught by Jadeja off Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling.

Ross Taylor stepped up his scoring rate after Williamson’s departure, and Coling de Grandhomme (16) also connected with a few lusty blows. He was caught behind by keeper MS Dhoni in the 45th over. Rain came down soon after and play was halted after 46.1 overs.

It’s been tough going for New Zealand but they’ve scrapped hard. And none more so than #KaneWilliamson, who brought up his fourth fifty-plus score of #CWC19 💪https://t.co/q5D4lrJ8Ui

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 9, 2019

The clouds continued to open up in intermittent patches throughout the rest of the day, until it was decided that play would be suspended for the day and that the match would resume from the same point on Wednesday.