The Indian cricket team has been granted a two-day break following their victory over New Zealand in Dharamsala on Sunday (October 22). The team will travel to Lucknow, their next destination for the World Cup, on Wednesday (October 25) after enjoying a couple of days off in the picturesque hill town in the state of Himachal Pradesh. The Men in Blue will not be undertaking any travel a day after the match, the usual drill in the World Cup so far, and have decided to stay back in Dharamsala for two days.
“The team will not travel today and will stay back in Dharamsala for two days. They will be resting before preparations for the next game in Lucknow begin,” a BCCI official aware of the team’s schedule tells CricketNext. India have chased successfully in all five of their matches and the highest was the 274-run target set by New Zealand. In the first innings, Daryl Mitchell hit a century to guide New Zealand to 273 all out against India in Sunday's top-of-the-table World Cup clash between two unbeaten teams. New Zealand had lost their openers early after being invited to bat first in the Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala but Mitchell (130) and Rachin Ravindra (75) put on 159 to get the innings back on track. The stand was the highest between the two teams at a World Cup for any wicket as the pair surpassed the previous best of 136 by Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth in 1987.Fast bowler Mohammed Shami helped India pull things back in the final 10 overs as he returned figures of 5-54 in his first appearance at the tournament. India are currently leading the points table with five wins in as many games. They have four more matches to play -- that against England in Lucknow on October 29, against Sri Lanka in Mumbai on November 2, against South Africa in Kolkata on November 5, and against the Netherlands in Bengaluru on November 12.
