India to play New Zealand in T20 World Cup final, lift trophy: AB de Villiers | Cricket News

MUMBAI: Former South African batsman AB de Villiers has given his prediction for the ICC T20 World Cup Finaland says that India will play New Zealand in the summit and lift the trophy for the second time.
The first semi-final of the tournament between New Zealand and Pakistan will take place in Sydney on Wednesday. On the other hand, the second semi-final between India and England will take place in Adelaide on Thursday.
“India and New Zealand will play the final and I think India will win,” de Villiers told ANI.
de Villiers was at the launch event of the first edition of The Last Man Stands (LMS) India Super League 2023, the world’s largest amateur T20 cricket league in India.

India don’t really have a good history with New Zealand at the ICC events. They recently lost to the Kiwis in a must-win game in the group stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. They also lost the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the 2019 50-over World Cup semi-final against the Kiwis.
On the form of individual players in the Indian team, de Villiers said: “Everyone is playing well. Suryakumar looks in good form, Virat looks in good form. Rohit hasn’t had his best run but he will come to the party when it comes matters most. He is a fantastic player. The whole batting line-up and team are talented. I look forward to them having a good game against England, which is their biggest test. If they win the semi-finals, they will trophy.”
Virat has been in red-hot form in this tournament so far. In his five appearances, he scored 246 runs at an average of 123.00 and three half-centuries. This includes his instant-classic knock of 82* against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which even he termed as his “best T20I knock”.

Suryakumar Yadav also excelled, scoring 225 runs in five matches at an average of 75.00 with three fifties.
Pacers Arshdeep Singh (10 wickets), Hardik Pandya (8 wickets), Mohammad Shami (6 wickets), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4 wickets) and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (6 wickets) also did a fantastic job as a bowling unit.
However, top order has not yet found its peak. Even though KL Rahul scored 123 runs in five innings with two half-centuries, he struggled in his first three matches. Skipper Rohit Sharma also scored just 89 runs, with his best score being 53 against the Netherlands.