A rampaging Indian outfit finished the league stage with a terrific 9-0 record as they smashed Netherlands in Bangalore by 160 runs. Despite the fact that they have only a two-day gap between this game and the semifinal against New Zealand, India never let their guard down and ended up posting a mammoth 410/4 on the board after their top five delivered in unison. Even though the top order failed to convert their fifties, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul made up for it with sparkling tons in their double century stand before the bowlers finished the job.
Rohit Sharma took little time to get going after opting to bat as he signalled his intentions by finding the boundary twice off the first three balls of the innings. But it was Shubman Gill who made an early impression with a six that went out of the Chinnaswamy stadium as the openers brought up fifty inside the first six overs. The onslaught continued with the batters continuing to dominate the bowling enroute bringing up their century stand. Gill, who has had a lukewarm tournament, took just 30 balls for his fifty but couldn’t cash in on his start as he pulled a short ball that was caught in excellent fashion near the boundary.
Rohit endured a similar fate as he too couldn’t kick on and get a big one after going past fifty as he fell for 61 while attempting to hit one of the ground. Virat Kohli, who was batting on 7 off 18 balls at one point, took charge after Rohit’s departure and was scoring at a brisk pace to make up for his stuttering start. Much to the delight of his IPL home crowd, he brought up his seventh fifty-plus score of the tournament and also went straight to the top of the run charts. Like the two batters before him. Kohli couldn’t convert that fifty into a century as well with Roelof van der Merwe getting one to come in with the angle and knock the off stump.
However, India were in a commanding position by that time when Iyer and Rahul joined forces as they already had 200 on the board with over 20 overs still left in the innings. Iyer made it a ‘perfect 4’ by reaching fifty for the third consecutive time and Rahul had settled down as well as the two batters were prepared for the final flourish. Iyer in particular regularly smashed huge sixes down the ground and at the other end history was created when Rahul also brought up his half-century. For the first time in their history, India’s top five had registered fifty-plus scores in an ODI game.
At the end of the 40th over, India had 284 on the board and were definitely in with a chance of getting to 400 with Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja yet to bat. But Iyer and Rahul ensured the home side didn’t need their services as they went berserk. Having made 77 and 82 in his last two games, Iyer finally had a World Cup hundred to his name whereas Rahul upped the ante as well and sensed an opportunity to bring up his own century. Iyer took on Logan van Beek apart in the penultimate over, smashing him for three sixes and a four as the bowler finished with figures of 0/107. Rahul then had 11 runs left to get to his ton in the final over and needed just two balls to reach the landmark in front of his home crowd as India finished with a massive score.
Getting closer to that total against the most in-form bowling attack of the tournament was never going to materialise for Netherlands. And they did suffer an early loss when Mohammed Siraj got one to move away from Wesley Barresi and take his outside edge. However, Netherlands did show signs of a fight when Colin Ackermann came out all guns blazing. He hit Siraj for three fours in a single over and found support from Max O’Dowd as well to help Netherlands post 62 in the powerplay.
Once that boundary–laden phase came to an end, India’s spin duo caused a dent. Kuldeep Yadav got rid of Ackermann whereas Jadeja bowled a beauty to knock O’Dowd’s stumps. With Siraj heading to the dugout after getting hurt while attempting a catch, Rohit turned to the part-time of Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Gill. Kohli gave the crowd a massive reason to celebrate when he had Scott Edwards strangled down the leg side for his first wicket in international cricket since 2016.
Jasprit Bumrah then bowled an inch-perfect yorker to send Bas de Leede back to the pavilion and Siraj returned to the field and knocked off Sybrand Engelbrecht to leave the Netherlands staring at a huge defeat. Teja Nidamanuru gave the Dutch dugout some reason to rejoice by sending the ball over the ropes and in the process helped himself to a fifty. His resistance almost helped Netherlands bat out 50 overs in the end but the night belonged to the home side as they now head into that knockout game oozing confidence on the back of this unbeaten run.
Brief scores: India 410/4 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 128*, KL Rahul 102, Rohit Sharma 61; Bas de Leede 2/82) beat Netherlands 250 in 47.5 overs (Teja Nidamanuru 54; Mohammed Siraj 2/29, Jasprit Bumrah 2/33) by 160 runs
