Team India defeated Netherlands by 56 runs in their second Super 12 Group 2 match of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Indian trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav took India to 179 runs after 20 overs. The Men in Blue started off quite slow in the innings and but made up for in the latter half of the innings.
India won the toss and opted to bat first. Kl Rahul departed in the third over after Paul van Meekeren trapped him leg before wicket. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli ticked the scoreboard around and the Indian captain was offered a few chances on the field.
After 10 overs, India was 67-1. Rohit Sharma soon changed his gear and tonked a few boundaries. Virat Kohli was playing the anchoring innings and just after Sharma was dismissed, he was the one who started to accelerate.
Suryakumar Yadav joined Virat Kohli and smashed the Dutch bowlers to all parts. Virat Kohli brought up his another half-century alongside skipper Rohit Sharma today and Suryakumar Yadav, who ended the innings with a six, steering the Indian scorecard to 179.
The Netherlands were slow to start off in their chase. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and by the halfway stage the Dutch were stationed at 51 for 3.
A formidable partnership never came for the Netherlands and they were ultimately restricted to 123 for 9 in 20 overs. The pick of the bowlers for India was Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who took 2 wickets. Arshdeep Singh and Axar Pater also bagged two wickets each.
India won the match by 56 runs and is now positioned at the top of Group 2 with 4 points from 2 matches.
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Post Match- Interviews
Rohit Sharma (India captain):
Lucky for us, we had a few days to get over that special win. As soon as the game got over, we came to Sydney and regrouped. We have to move on now, and the focus was on this game where we wanted to come out and get those two points. I thought it was a clinical win. Looking at the way they have qualified for the Super 12s, credit to them. We however always looked to what we can do with ourselves, not bother about the opposition. To be honest, this was a near perfect win. Yes, we played a little slow at the start but that was the conversation between me and Virat, we had to wait on that surface to play the big shots. Not too happy with my fifty, but what’s important is getting runs – doesn’t matter if they are good looking runs or ugly runs. At the end of the day, it is about keeping the confidence up.
Scott Edwards (Netherlands captain):
Definitely the noisiest (atmosphere), some of the chants that were going around made it difficult to speak to the players sometimes, but it was an awesome experience. We came here to win and put on a good performance, but against these sort of sides you have to be on the money or they make you pay. The way those two batters played in the end and took them to 180, it was always going to be tricky. We bowled reasonably well but if you don’t get the wickets and with the batting order they have, it was always going to be tough to restrict them. It gets bigger and better, doesn’t it. Looking forward to it (the Pakistan game) and hopefully we can put up a better performance.
Suryakumar Yadav (Player of the Match):
I was just trying to express myself when I went in to bat. The situation was very simple, I just had to up the tempo at that time. I took one ball today (to get going), but the message was loud and clear. We had to get about 8-10 an over and get a total which our bowlers could defend easily. Very happy with the way things went. Really enjoying batting with him (Kohli), the thoughts are very clear when we both are batting. If I get few boundaries earlier then our partnership needs to be stretched and that’s what we are doing.
