Having beaten India convincingly 3-0 in their own backyard recently besides an impressive 9-5 win-loss record in ICC events, off-spinner Michael Bracewell believes it’s advantage New Zealand on Sunday
New Zealand off-spinner Michael Bracewell (left) celebrates a Bangladesh wicket with teammates during his Player of the Match-winning effort of 4-26 at Rawalpindi recently. Pic/AFP
New Zealand is a puzzle India have historically struggled to crack in global tournaments. In ICC events of the 50-over and 20-over varieties, the Kiwis hold an impressive 9-5 record (one no-result), heaping especially untold misery in the final of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy (as the Champions Trophy was then known) in Nairobi and the semi-final of the 2019 50-over World Cup in Manchester.
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India will be thrilled, therefore, that when they run into the Kiwis at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, it will in the secure knowledge that they have already made it to the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. New Zealand will have happy memories of not just their last showdown against India, when they swept a Test series in India 3-0 in October-November, but also of their last engagement against the Indians at this venue, an eight-wicket win at the T20 World Cup in 2021 which put Virat Kohli’s men out of the competition.
“We don’t like to put too much pressure on ourselves,” off-spinner all-rounder Michael Bracewell revealed on Friday afternoon, as the Kiwis braced up for their first practice session at the ICC Academy grounds. “Obviously, coming off a great Test series win, it gives us a lot of confidence that we can [win again] and we’ve got a really good record against India in ICC events. We try not to let the moment get to us. It’s worked well for us in the past,” added Bracewell, the nephew of former Test off-spinner John, who consigned India to a 136-run defeat in the Mumbai Test of 1988 with match figures of eight for 132.
“We just try and play our style of cricket and our brand of cricket, and it seems to be a good match-up so far. We’ll just keep trying to do that, sticking to our game plan, trying to figure out the conditions and then trying to apply pressure that way. It’s something that we’ve done for a number of years now and we’ll continue to try and do so again.”
Bracewell has had a good tournament, headlined by a Player-of-the-Match-winning spell of four for 26 in the five-wicket defeat of Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Monday. Alongside skipper Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips, he forms a quality spin attack further augmented by the presence of Rachin Ravindra and is relishing the prospect of playing on a DICS surface that has provided assistance to the slower bowlers.
Unlike several others, who have pointed to India enjoying an ‘unfair advantage’ by virtue of being based in and playing all their games in Dubai, Bracewell came up with a typically admirable New Zealand reaction. “It is what it is,” he remarked, embracing a touch of diplomacy.
“It’s been decided and that’s the way that it is and there’s no point dwelling on that. It’s part of what makes it exciting; I personally think coming to a different ground and trying to figure out those different conditions... We’re excited to try and learn and play in different conditions.” Like India, New Zealand are also through to the last four, where they will met an as yet undecided opponent in Lahore next Wednesday.
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