Rachin Ravindra played the lead role in New Zealand’s victory in the Champions Trophy semifinal against South Africa, as he joined senior-partner Kane Williamson in scoring a century and believes that his team will have to quickly adapt to the Dubai pitch in order to challenge India in the title match on Sunday.
Like six other teams, New Zealand have played all their matches in Pakistan, while they travelled to Dubai for their group-stage match against India, who have played throughout in the UAE city after refusal to visit Pakistan for the tournament.
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It leaves India the more experienced team in the current scenario, when it comes to knowing the conditions at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
“We don’t quite know what the Dubai pitch is (like). We saw in our (group) game against India the ball turning, but the other day it didn’t turn so much. We found ourselves adapting and playing according to situations, which we will need to do on Sunday again,” said Ravindra, who came out to open in the semifinal and scored 108 runs.
“We will see in the next couple of days and hopefully it’s a good cricket wicket.”
Ravindra stitched a big partnership with Williamson, who scored 102 — which took New Zealand total to a huge 362 for 6. In response, South Africa put up a fight with David Miller’s blistering 67-ball 100 not out but could only reach 312 for 9 and lost by 50 runs.
Ravindra had scored only six in the group-stage match against India in the group, falling to Hardik Pandya.
“You get out pretty much every time you bat. Hopefully, I can bat for a longer period of time (in the final) and continue to play well for my team,” he said.
“Whenever you approach a tournament, you expect hopefully to be among the top four teams and lucky enough we have been consistently good over a period of time. We are happy with our preparation, coming here early; we can see we are cooking reasonably well. Trust and ability around the group is great.”
