Guwahati: At the toss, skipper Rohit Sharma said, “Need to calm ourselves down from the Pakistan win and focus on the tournament. Another opportunity to tick boxes.” Did India manage to tick all the boxes?
If KL Rahul’s second successive failure with the bat is taken out of the equation, the Indian team partially walked the talk against the Netherlands, to register a convincing 56-run win at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday. However, having said that, allowing Netherlands to last the full quota of 20 overs, especially after reducing them to 63 for 5 by the 13th over, means there are more boxes to be ticked.
Also does that win help in Team India’s preparations ahead of the big game against South Africa on October 30? Well, the Proteas started the day with a clinical 104-run victory over Bangladesh at the same venue.
First things first, KL Rahul had a golden opportunity to silence his critics, but decided against reviewing the on-field umpire’s decision to eventually depart for yet another single digit score of 9. Television replays however, showed the ball would have missed the stumps. Costly miss!
A few overs later, his opening partner Rohit (53) found himself in a similar situation, but the skipper managed to overturn the decision of the on-field umpire, en-route a well-deserved half century off 35 deliveries that came with a pair of back-to-back boundaries off Tim Pringle in the 11th over.
At the other end, Virat Kohli (62 not out off 44) started off in customary style, knocking off the odd boundary while staying true to his set template, and in the process, played the perfect second fiddle to Rohit in their 73-run association for the second wicket. Rohit’s departure after being caught on the deep midwicket boundary on a grippy SCG wicket, brought in Mr 360 degrees, alias Suryakumar Yadav (51 not out off 25 balls).
Regarded as one of the best in the format, the nature of the pitch was the last thing on Yadav’s mind. He meant business from ball 1, hitting three fours in his first nine balls, to change the complexion of the match in a couple of overs, while allowing Kohli to shift gears at will. The former India captain did not disappoint either, and got to his 50 off 37 deliveries with a brilliantly timed loft over extra-cover for six. Surya, at the other end, got to his half century by flicking the final delivery of India’s innings for a six.
In response, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/9) opened up with two maidens that included the wicket of Jalandhar-born Vikramjit Singh (1) before the duo of Axar Patel (2/18) and Ravichandran Ashwin (2/21) exposed the Dutch side’s weakness against quality spin to further dent the side to 63 for 5.
However, contrary to expectations from a heavyweight side like India to inflict a dominating show, the men-in-blue somewhat fell short. The two other seamers in Mohammed Shami (1/27) and Arshdeep Singh (2/37) were amongst the wickets but somewhat lacked the sting in their attack.
Arshdeep also had a chance to bag a hat-trick after packing Logan van Beek and Fred Klaassen off successive deliveries in the 18th over, but instead went for three successive boundaries in the final over that allowed the Orange brigade finish with 123/9 on the board.
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