thrashed<\/a> South Africa in the first semi-final, are eyeing their maiden title in their second final appearance and Phillips said the team are ready for Bumrah.<\/p>\n\u201cHe [Bumrah] is a human as well,\u201d Phillips told reporters. \u201cHe is allowed to have a bad day, as are the rest of us. So hopefully we have a good day against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bumrah\u2019s accuracy and his ability to bowl yorkers has choked opposition teams. Against England, his four overs returned figures of 1-33 in a match where 499 runs were scored in 40 overs.<\/p>\n
However, he fared less well against the Kiwis in a five-match T20 series at the start of the year.<\/p>\n
India won 4-1 but Bumrah, who played in four of the matches, took just four wickets, conceding 9.46 runs an over.<\/p>\n
Phillips acknowledged Bumrah\u2019s class but said the tactics against any bowler are never the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we had a really good trip against him in the bilateral series as well but he\u2019s a class bowler,\u201d said Phillips.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got so many variations. He hits the block hole at the death incredibly well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips also played down the possible ploy of playing out Bumrah\u2019s four overs and targeting the other bowlers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily going to be that, per se,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I said, a bowler is allowed to miss, and if he happens to miss, we do have to put it away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat also means that if he does bowl, well, we have to accommodate for other things and adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perennial underdogs New Zealand edged into the semi-finals on net run rate but stepped up a couple of gears when Finn Allen\u2019s 33-ball 100 defenestrated favourites South Africa.<\/p>\n
New Zealand overturned their target of 169-8 in just 12.5 overs to claim an outrageous nine-wicket win: they are now seeking a first World Cup title in either white-ball format.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Santner\u2019s team will be up against a crowd of over 100,000 at the Narendra Modi Stadium and a billion Indian fans watching on TV, although that doesn\u2019t appear to be worrying the New Zealanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, we just go out there and enjoy it,\u201d said Phillips.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a great time as a group of guys, we go out there and do our best for our country and yes, obviously a packed crowd is fantastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play to entertain the people and whether they\u2019re supporting us or whether they\u2019re supporting India, it\u2019s fantastic for cricket in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AHMEDABAD: New Zealand will be ready to pounce if India\u2019s bowling star Jasprit Bumrah falters in the T20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-462490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}