00:00Hello and welcome, I am your host for the day, Vikrant Gupta, with me as usual the dapper
00:17businessman in Gavaskar, we are in Dubai and incidentally sunny by this morning team New
00:23Zealand has also landed in Dubai, ahead of the Champions Trophy final which is going
00:27to be played on Sunday and it's a repeat of the 2000 Champions Trophy final, it's been
00:3425 years since, a surprise that India and New Zealand have just played twice in the
00:40Champions Trophy, New Zealand beat India in that finals, India beat New Zealand last Sunday,
00:46the finals sunny by is something that the Indians need to clear now because we lost
00:52the one day World Cup in India, we lost in the finals and this is the third straight
00:56finals that the Indians are making in the ICC trophies, but the cup, the 50 over cup,
01:03we have been waiting for that for a good 12 years now. Yes, it's not going to be easy
01:09looking at the way New Zealand played the semi-final against South Africa, against a
01:13good strong South African attack for them to score 362, just tells you the depth of
01:19their batting, I know that in the last 8 overs they scored more than 100 runs, 9 overs they
01:25scored 113 runs, last 9 overs, it actually tells you that they have got explosive players,
01:31at the top of the order they have got correct, classically correct as well as innovative
01:36players in Rachid Ravindra and Kane Williamson very very experienced, Will Young didn't get
01:42too many runs, Latham didn't get too many runs in the semis and so India will have its
01:48task cut out. Is it deck to deck Sunny Bhai or would you say that the conditions will
01:52also favour India, India beat New Zealand in the last league game and the fact that
01:57the Indians have been playing here for more than 2 weeks now, does that also favour India?
02:02It does favour India to an extent but not as much as is being made out, the way that
02:09the teams that actually do well are the teams that go about their business without looking
02:14at the externals, those who keep on looking at the externals straight away are looking
02:19for an excuse in case they do not do well. Have you heard a little any peep from anybody
02:27in New Zealand, nothing at all, they had to rush after last Sunday's game to Pakistan
02:33to play, they just got a day of practice maybe but they went and they smashed it in 62 against
02:39South Africa, South Africa which was based in Pakistan and South Africa were also complaining
02:44about it. So the teams that do not complain, just focus on their game are the ones that
02:49are doing well. And ultimately it's a 100 over game, you've got to win the battle of
02:54a bat and a ball, teams who do well will always do well in all the conditions, it's just that
03:01maybe there are factors alluding to the fact that India will be strong favourites. Not
03:09just 3, there are several factors which would obviously be of significant importance before
03:17the game, it's just that the finals, if the teams are 1 and 2, nothing much separates
03:24the two. New Zealand have been, if not the best, the second best team in this Champions
03:29Trophy. Certainly the way they've played, they beat Pakistan and Pakistan comfortably,
03:34so clearly I think they lost to India fine, but they have shown a variety in their attack,
03:41they have shown depth in their batting, which is the reason why they are here, because they've
03:45been able to recover also from early setbacks and still put up a good total, a fighting
03:50total and they'll have learnt plenty from last Sunday's game against India for sure,
03:54no question about it. They're a team that goes about their business very quietly, they're
04:00very smart cricketers and therefore, like I said, nobody, just because India beat Australia
04:07in the semi-final, in a pretty tight game, nobody should take it for granted that on
04:13Sunday it's going to be the same. New Zealand will be a very, very tough opponent.
04:19And again, there would obviously be four squares in any cricket game, your batting versus their
04:25bowling, your bowling versus their batting. So, what factors do you think would favour
04:31India? Is it the spinners, is it Mohammad Shami, or is it the depth in your batting?
04:37All three actually, but more I think it'll be, to contain the New Zealand batting, it'll
04:41have to be the spinner type, the middle overs. So in the middle overs is where I think India
04:46has struggled a little bit, but the spinners, even if they don't take wickets, if they can
04:50choke the runs, they'll have done a wonderful job and that's what they've been doing. Chakravorty
04:54has been taking wickets, Jadeja and Akshat Patel have been bowling tight, not giving
04:58away sixes and boundaries easily. So that is going to be the key, those middle overs,
05:03say from the 10th to the 35th over, those 25-30 over runs.
05:08And psychologically, the very fact that Varun Chakravorty played against New Zealand the
05:12first time in this Champions League, he picked up five semi-finals. India, it wasn't really
05:18a big total, but India defended that. India won by 45 runs. So how much of a psychological
05:24edge is that for Varun versus the Kiwi batsmen?
05:27It will be, it will be a psychological edge because they will, not knowing which way the
05:32ball is going to turn, will play a little bit more watchfully. If, for example, they
05:37find that the finger spinners, Jadeja and Akshat Patel are not getting any grip, then
05:44you know, they can, they can go down the pitch knowing that look, their line and their lengths
05:48are pretty similar. They can go to look and attack them because they're not worried about
05:52being outstumped or inside edging the ball or with the turn, you know, having an issue.
05:57They're not worried about that. So with Chakravorty, there's always a which way the ball is going
06:01to turn. And Kuldeep. And Kuldeep as well. So you might actually think that you might
06:05have a situation where they might say, okay, let's knock them for ones and twos. But that's
06:09not a problem for India. It's when the sixers as well as the ones and twos come in the same
06:13over, that is when there's a problem.
06:15Do you think, Sunny Bhai, India's played to their maximum potential. Is India operating
06:21on 100% or is it that 70%, 80%, 90% has given you good results as well?
06:29Yes, they haven't. Because when you look at the openers, they haven't really given the
06:34Indian team the kind of start that they wanted. That has not happened. So clearly, I think
06:39there's a shortcoming over there. Even with the new ball, you know, you might want to
06:44in the first 10 overs, you would definitely want to take about two wickets or three wickets.
06:48That's also not been quite happening. In the middle overs, we've not been getting wickets
06:52although the runs have not been, you know, flowing. So those are areas that, you know,
06:57you get better in those areas, the better the chances of going on to win the game.
07:02Well, the two teams will be practicing tomorrow in Dubai. The Kiwis have just come in. India
07:08has opted to rest for the day. It was a well-fought victory over Australia. But the moment the
07:15Indians and the Kiwis practice tomorrow, you will probably have a sense of their game
07:20plan for the final. Even though, Sunny Bhai, the 11 for India or the strategy for India
07:26may not change. I think it is going to be four spinners. It has to be. It has to be.
07:31Why change now? It's shown, Chakravarthy's inclusion, Kuldeep's inclusion has shown how
07:36effective they can be. And also wicket-taking bowlers, the best dot ball in limited-dose
07:41wicket or any format of the game is a wicket dot ball. So they've been doing that. So there
07:46should be no change at all in the Indian lineup. Well, like I said, India have made it to the
07:51finals several times in Champions Trophy, in other ICC tournaments as well. It's just
07:57that since 2013, India has just won once. But that was last year. And if India do win
08:03now, obviously, you will have to say that the monkey is off India's back.
08:10So anyway, that had been a mental barrier. That had been the mental barrier. You would
08:14make it to the finals, yet not win it. Having done that last year in the T20s, is that still
08:20a factor or the monkey is really off India's back now? Well, once you know how to win a
08:25final, you obviously are better prepared for the next final. Look, no final is ever going
08:30to be easy. Very seldom does it happen in sport that the champion is such a champion
08:35that he completely wipes the floor of the opposition. Doesn't happen. And certainly
08:39not in cricket. And not on the kind of surface that the final is going to be played on. But
08:45just having won a title, a world title, less than a year ago, means that this Indian team
08:51is really high as far as knowing how to go about, you know, whatever little stumble that
08:58there might be there. How to recover from the stumble will be something that they'll
09:03be aware of. They'll also know that New Zealand have reached finals, but they haven't won.
09:08So I think they won in 2000 against India in Nairobi. And the WTC finals. WTC finals.
09:16But that's another format altogether. And they were also the bogey team for India. And
09:20the fact that India beat them here, and India beat them twice in the 23 World Cup, means
09:26that that monkey is also off our back. Definitely. I think they know how to beat New Zealand.
09:31But again, cricket is a funny game. Things can go wrong in a matter of a couple of overs
09:36or four or five overs. But two of the best teams vying for that champion's trophy.
09:41Coverage continues on The India Today.
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