Team India stayed unbeaten in the league stage of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 as they crushed Netherlands by 160 runs at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday (November 12).
Opting to bat first, the hosts rode on hundreds from Shreyas Iyer (128*) and KL Rahul (102) and half-centuries from Rohit Sharma (61), Shubman Gill (51) and Virat Kohli (51) to rack up a massive 410/4 on the board.
Defending the huge total, the Indian bowlers did well as a unit to bundle out the Dutch for 250 in 47.5 overs.
Jasprit Bumrah (2-33 in 9 overs), Mohammed Siraj (2-29 in 6 overs), Kuldeep Yadav (2-41 in 10 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-49 in 9 overs) returned with a couple of scalps each while Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shared the remaining two wickets between them.
After the game, skipper Rohit Sharma revealed the reasons behind India's unbeaten streak of nine games in this World Cup, saying that taking one match at a time worked well for them.
"Since we started the tournament, for us, it was all about thinking about one game at a time. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it's a long tournament. It was important to focus on one game. Different venues and we had to adapt, that's exactly what we did," Rohit said at the post-match presentation.
The captain was pleased by the fact that the team has been clinical throughout the tournament and every individual stepped up under pressure situations.
"Very pleased with how we have played in these nine games. Very clinical from game one till today. That's because different individuals have stepped up at different times. That's a good sign for the team. We know the conditions, but when you play different opponents, that's a different challenge," Rohit stated.
"We adapted really well. We started four games in a row and then we had to bat first, seamers did the rest along with the spinners. It's important, results do matter to keep the dressing room environment lively. There's going to be a lot of expectations, we wanted to keep everything aside and focus on the job at hand," he added.
India used nine bowlers against Netherlands and Rohit said this was the opportunity for them to try out bowling options.
"We wanted to play the game on the field with a lot of fun and that reflected on our performances. Today we had nine (bowling) options, it's important, this is the game where we could have tried. Seamers bowling those wide yorkers when not needed, but we wanted to do something different," he concluded.
