Net bowler Shashwat Tiwari revealed that New Zealand batters were struggling against leg spin on the eve of the Champions Trophy final against India in Dubai on Sunday. In front of a sold-out crowd and a throbbing atmosphere, India and New Zealand, two modern-day giants with rich cricketing histories, will fight for the coveted title. On the eve of the pulsating clash, Shashwat, who bowled to the Kiwis during the nets session, shed light on their strategy. He revealed that the Blackcaps tried to refine their technique against the left-arm spinners and showed glimpses of struggle.

“Today, I fortunately got to bowl. Well, at one point in time, he asked me to bowl from 18 yards just to prepare for Ravindra Jadeja. It is because of the kind of pace he has; he was expecting that kind of speed. We bowled from that point, and we did it nicely. But when he realised the ball was coming too quickly, he asked me to bowl from 22 yards,” he told ANI.

“They are preparing for left-armers. I won’t say they are struggling. Of course, our Indian team has top-class spinners, but I don’t think they will be able to cope with them,” he added.

Both teams squared off in the final group stage game to fight for a spot in the summit. India deployed a four-spin ploy with the addition of mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy. The experienced ball tweaker left the Kiwis bamboozled and cleaned up the middle and tail end to return with match-winning figures of 5/42.

The success with spin lifted India to defend a modest 249-run target successfully and forced the Blackcaps to surrender to a 44-run defeat. The Rohit Sharma-led side will be looking to replicate a similar performance and add another ICC title in its shining trophy cabinet.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh.

New Zealand: Will Young, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William O’Rourke, Daryl Mitchell, Nathan Smith, Mark Chapman, Jacob Duffy.

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