India needed to score 240 to reach a fourth Cricket World Cup final after New Zealand added 28 runs to its overnight total on the resumption of the rain-hit last-four match in Manchester on Wednesday.
The Black Caps resumed under cloudy but relatively bright skies at Old Trafford on 211-5 with 3.5 overs left, and ended its 50 overs on 239-8.
Two wickets fell in two balls, with Ravindra Jadeja central to both of them. The India allrounder ran out Ross Taylor for a team-high 74 with a throw from midwicket that struck the one stump he could see.
Jadeja, who starred on Tuesday with bowling figures of 1-34, then took a high catch as he retreated toward the boundary at deep midwicket to remove Tom Latham for 10 off Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the start of the next over. He went down on one knee after taking the catch, and held the pose for a few seconds.
Off the final ball of the next-to-last over, Matt Henry (1) heaved Kumar high into the leg side and straight to Virat Kohli.
Mitchell Santner (9) and Trent Boult (3) were the not-out batsmen. Kumar had 3-43.
After a stodgy start to the innings on a slow pitch on Tuesday, the New Zealanders at least finished with a relative flourish with 84 runs off the last 10 overs.
The ground was only about two-thirds full at the start of play on the reserve day, which was required after persistent rain brought a premature end to play Tuesday. Once again, there was a heavily pro-India crowd.
The winner plays England or Australia in the final at Lord’s on Sunday. The second semifinal is at Edgbaston on Thursday.
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Steve Douglas is at www.twitter.com/sdouglas80
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This story has corrected Ross Taylor’s score to 74 from 73 in third paragraph