Delhi, 2 March (H.S.): India and New Zealand booked their Champions Trophy semifinal spots early in the 50-over tournament and will clash today on Sunday in Dubai, with the winner topping Group A.

South Africa topped Group B and will face the loser of Sunday’s match, while Australia finished second in that group and will face the winner of the final match of the group stage.

This Sunday’s game could be the one where spinners could take centerstage, given the conditions at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS).India will have at least three spinners in the XI – Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel. New Zealand could, strategically or otherwise, in fact, unleash four of them – Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell, Glenn Philips and Rachin Ravindra.

India will come into the match after a six-day game break since their victory against Pakistan.

There will be only a day’s recovery between the last group match and the semifinal on Tuesday in Dubai. Indeed, a great deal of the talk heading into the match has been focused on injuries and player workloads.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar