It’s official now. India will face Australia in the Champions Trophy semifinal while New Zealand will fly back to Lahore to face South Africa. Beyond the academic matter of finalising the semifinal line-up, the two-already qualified teams from Group A also had an opportunity to send a warning shot to the other two remaining teams and it was India that served the most ominous dose of their credentials as they unleashed a four-pronged spin attack to strangle New Zealand in a defence of 249, winning by 44 runs.

Leading the spin pack was Varun Chakaravarthy, brought into the XI at the expense of a fast bowler, Harshit Rana, to reinforce an already imposing attack on the tired surfaces of Dubai. It was at this very venue four years ago in another ICC event that Varun’s career veered off-track. Tonight, in the middle of a purple patch, he proved to be un-pickable and claimed his maiden ODI five-fer as India’s quartet of spinners cumulatively took 9 for 156 to bring New Zealand’s chase to a screeching halt despite a battling, but chancy 81 from Kane Williamson.

In theory, India’s total of 249 was only eight more than what Pakistan managed against them a week ago at this very venue. But the pitch offered substantially more grip and with no real onset of dew in the second innings, India’s selection call turned out to be astute. Rohit Sharma didn’t waste too much time introducing spin, bringing on Axar Patel in the sixth over. Before that though, Hardik Pandya, now playing as the second seamer, prised out Rachin Ravindra with a well-directed short ball with Axar completing a neat diving catch at third man.

Varun incidentally began with a very full ball and was driven down the ground by Williamson for four. That was a rare mis-step in length on the night for the spinner, who began working over New Zealand’s batters soon enough with his bag of variations. In his second over, he had Will Young play the wrong line and inside-edge the ball onto his stumps. In came Daryl Mitchell, who hit hundreds in each of the two games against India in the last World Cup and one who generally has multiple options against spin. Here though, India locked up his reverse sweep with a well-placed short third-man and denied him any releases. Mitchell struggled to pick Kuldeep off the hand and was eventually put out of his misery by the left-arm wristspinner after missing a legspinner and wearing it on his pads adjacent to the stumps.

It was a feature of India’s spinners as they hardly ever left the stumps even on a turning track, thereby ensuring that the LBW remained a hot mode of dismissal with as many as four middle-order batters trapped in front of the stumps. Tom Latham missed a reverse sweep against Ravindra Jadeja while Varun accounted for Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell, although the latter would have survived with a review.

At the other end, Williamson tried to hold the chase together and even benefited from three dropped catches – two of them from KL Rahul behind the stumps. Eventually, with the asking rate climbing steeply, he looked to take on Axar and was deceived in the flight and was stumped for a sedate 120-ball 81. With it ended New Zealand’s hopes and opened the gates up for Varun to add two more lower-order wickets to complete a well-deserved five-fer.

Before Varun’s headline-grabbing efforts under the ring of fire, it was a fast bowler, Matt Henry, who returned identical figures (5 for 42) after New Zealand opted to chase and proved to be the scourge of the Indian top-order once again, as he had been in that (in)famous World Cup semifinal at Old Trafford six years ago. After bowling short of a good length to begin, the seamer pushed one ball further up and managed to beat Shubman Gill on the shuffle to trap the in-form batter LBW.

Virat Kohli, fresh off a century, was eager to put Henry off his lengths and even managed to draw a short and wide delivery but his cut shot found a flying Phillips, who matched and perhaps even bettered his own effort to catch Mohammad Rizwan earlier in the tournament. Between them, captain Rohit Sharma mistimed an attempted pull straight to a leaping mid-wicket.

India were 30 for 3. Incidentally, the last time they were three down for 46 or fewer runs after 15 overs was six years ago, in that famous game in Manchester. Like on that occasion, the coming together of a left-right pair brought some relief. Axar, playing at No.5, joined forces with Shreyas Iyer to put the innings back on track. The partnership got off to a very sedate beginning, going as many as 51 balls without a boundary. At one stage, Axar had batted 24 balls for five runs before he timed a sweeep off Michael Bracewell for four.

Interestingly, Bracewell didn’t find a joy on a surface that offered more for him than the ones in Pakistan have, and struggled with his lengths. In his defence, some of it was down to the way Iyer pressed forward while facing him as if to suggest he was stepping out, only to rock back and pick the boundaries. Iyer also carved three boundaries off a William O’Rourke over as India’s total inched past 100 in the 25th over. He was ably supported by Axar, who handled New Zealand’s spinners very well.

Iyer got to a crucial 75-ball half-century, continuing his exemplary run of scores against New Zealand in ODIs — six 50+ knocks in eight innings. But like in the previous game played here, batters found it difficult to start on the wicket and the end of the 98-run partnership proved bothersome for India. Axar fell for 42 after paddling a catch to short fine-leg.

Iyer and KL Rahul put on another brisk stand for the fifth wicket but the former’s insistence on going after the short ball led to his downfall as a third top-edged pull found a fielder to end his excellent knock on 79. Soon enough, Rahul too departed, outfoxed by a sharp turner from Mitchell Santner that found his edge on the way to the ‘keeper.

At 182 for 6 in the 40th over, India faced the possibility of not batting out their full quota of overs. But Hardik Pandya played a crucial innings of 45 lower down the order, forging a 41-run stand with Jadeja. That stand too was ended by Henry with lots of help from a flying backward point fielder, with Williamson the acrobat on this occasion to send back Jadeja. Henry added two more wickets in the final over to finish with a five-fer, but as it turned out, his effort was eclipsed on the night.

Brief scores:
India 249 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 79, Hardik Pandya 45; Matt Henry 5-42) beat New Zealand 205 in 45.3 overs (Kane Williamson 81; Varun Chakaravarthy 5-42) by 44 runs