The final match between India and New Zealand will take place on Sunday, March 9, on the same slow, challenging ground that played host to the highly anticipated India vs. Pakistan match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025.
As demonstrated in the India-Pakistan match, the Men in Blue had to chase down a stagnant surface after the Mohammad Rizwan-led team was swept out for 241 in the first innings, which took 42.3 overs. Similar to this, it is anticipated that the pitch for the final match would be dull, which is known to greatly aid the spinners. The team that wins the toss on Sunday would therefore be enticed to bat first and give the opponents something to aim for.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has utilised four different pitches for all of the games held here thus far, therefore this is the only pitch being used again during the tournament, according to Cricbuzz. Sitanshu Kotak, India’s batting coach, provided further commentary in the report, sharing his thoughts on the significance of the final surface.
“The wicket varies somewhat in each game. How do you evaluate our batsmen’s adaptability as a batting coach? Its general nature hasn’t changed much, even though the wicket does vary occasionally. But the batting has been quite good. Additionally, Kotak was cited as adding, “We’ve been lucky to get good starts, and on occasions when those starts were lacking, the middle order stepped up.”
India has yet to lose in the competition, whereas the BlackCaps have only suffered a defeat against the Men in Blue in the Group A match. After giving Mitchell Santner‘s batsmen a 250-run goal in the first innings, the Indians were able to limit them to 205 runs on a different pitch at the same location. After taking a fifer in that match, Varun Chakravarthy will be looking to exert pressure on the Kiwi hitters once more.
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