India ensured that they gave fans at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and those watching at home a Diwali to remember, beating the Netherlands by 160 runs in their last group stage match of the 2023 ODI World Cup on Sunday.
Electing to bat first, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India a blistering start, with the former yet again negating the new ball effect by sweeping Aryan Dutt for two fours in the opening over of the match.
The Indian skipper, who was praised by head coach Rahul Dravid in the pre-match press conference for his explosive batting against the new ball on Saturday, continued to go after the Netherlands bowling carting them to fours and sixes to all parts of the ground.
He was soon joined by Gill, who tonked Dutt for a six that hit the roof of the venue to get things going. The right-hander favoured the leg-side for both pace and spin and the duo put on 50 runs for the first wicket in opening six overs.
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Interestingly, despite Rohit getting off the blocks faster than Gill it was the latter who got to his fifty before him, off 30 balls in the 12th over. However, the Punjab right-hander fell soon after caught impressively by Teja Nidaramanu at the fine leg boundary off Paul van Meekeren’s bowling.
Virat Kohli walked out to a rousing reception from the crowd and while he began slowly, Rohit maintained the tempo of the innings by consistently going after the bowling before going for one shot too many and getting holed out in the mid-wicket boundary for 61.
Kohli upped his pace soon after and got his half-century to raise hopes of getting to his 50th ODI ton, but it wasn’t to be as he was bowled by his once Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Roelof Van der Merwe for 51.
But then began the stand that would be remembered by fans, for days to come. Shreyas Iyer (128 not out off 94 balls) and KL Rahul (102 off 64 balls) put the Netherlands attack to the sword, carting boundaries to all parts of the venue and putting on 208 runs in just over 20 overs to help India reach an imposing 410 for 4 in 50 overs.
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In reply, the Netherlands got off to the worst possible start losing Wesley Baresi in the second over to Mohammed Siraj. But Max O’Dowd (30 off 42 balls) and Colin Ackermann (35 off 32 balls) put on 61 runs for the second wicket, that included arguably the shot of the match from the latter, a straight drive off Siraj.
But Kuldeep Yadav removed Ackermann in his first over to break the stand and Ravindra Jadeja then joined the fun to remove O’Dowd, who was bowled for 27. As if to test the bowling strength of the batters, Rohit opted to give the likes of Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav a bowl. The Netherlands batters survived the period until Jasprit Bumrah was brought back and he sent Bas de Leede back to the pavilion with a peach of a yorker for 12.
Siraj repeated the feat to send back Sybrand Englebrecht for 12 but Nidamanaru kept the innings moving forward with some lusty blows. Nidamanuru put on 36 runs for the seventh wicket with Logan van Beek before the latter was bowled by Yadav for 16.
Van de Merwe slogged a few hits to the leg-side boundaries of the spin duo of Yadav and Jadeja before he fell while going for one big hit too many and was holed out at the long on boundary for 16.
To give more cheer to the crowd, Rohit came on to have a bowl and off the fifth ball of his opening over, removed Nidamanuru for 54 to close the match and help the Men in Blue maintain their undefeated streak.
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To save the best for the last, the crowd at the stadium and watching back home were treated to a two-over spell from Kohli in which he removed captain Scott Edwards, caught down the leg side by Rahul much to the delight of his teammates and others watching the game.
Brief scores: India 410 for 4 in 50 overs (Iyer 128 not out, Rahul 102, Rohit 61; de Leede 2-82) beat Netherlands 250 all out in 47.5 overs (Nidamanuru 54, Engelbrecht 45; Bumrah 2-33).
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