India continued their victory march in the T20 World Cup with a 56-run win over the Netherlands in the Group 1 match of the Super 12 stage in Sydney on Thursday. Virat Kohli starred with the bat again as he top scored with a 44-ball 62 not out while Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav also joined in the party with half-centuries.
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The fireworks from the trio took India to 179/2 in 20 overs and in reply Netherlands could only manage 123/9. The entire Indian bowling unit fired in unison with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel, and R Ashwin picking two wickets each. Bhuvneshwar, in particular, was impressive as he gave away just nine runs in three overs.
This was the second win in as many games for India as they earlier defeated Pakistan in a nail-biter in their group opener in Melbourne last Sunday. India go top in Group 2 with maximum of four points in two games. Their net run rate is also a strong +1.425.
Opting to bat after winning the toss, skipper Rohit Sharma expectedly opened the innings with KL Rahul. The latter, however, continued his lean patch in the tournament as he parished after scoring just 9 in the third over to Paul van Meekeren.
Sharma too would have met the same fate soon but had luck on his side as he was dropped twice by Tom Pringle in back-to-back overs. The Indian captain made the most of the opportunities by playing the bigger hand in a 73-run stand with Kohli for the second wicket.
Sharma shot four boundaries and three maximums before he fell for 53 runs (35 balls) to Fred Klaassen at the end of the 12th over.
However, Kohli’s presence at the other end meant, it had little impact on the run flow with an in-form Suryakumar Yadav coming in. The duo added an unbeaten 95 runs for the third wicket with Kohli did the initial hitting. Kohli’s 62-run knock was laced with three fours and two sixes before Yadav took charge at the death. He shot seven fours and a six to finish his innings at 51 not out off 25 balls while India posted 179/2 on the board.
Chasing the tall ask, the Dutch never looked in the game as they lost both their openers — Vikramjit Singh (1) and Max O’Dowd (16) — inside the powerplay. Bas de Leede (16) and Colin Ackermann (17) tried to build the innings steadily under heavy pressure from Indian bowlers but could never really score at a pace.
The 27-run partnership was ended by Patel in the 10th over with the wicket of De Leede. At the point the Dutch could already feel they are out of the game as the scoreboard read 47/3.
R Ashwin soon picked two wickets — Ackermann and Tom Cooper (5) — in the 13th over to make it 63/5.
In at No. 7, Pringle quickly scored a 15-ball 20 but couldn’t make his stay very long with Mohammed Shami sending him back to the pavilion. The Dutch tailenders couldn’t add much value to the score but Van Meekeren’s 6-ball 14 down at No. 11 took the minnows past 100 and gave them a semblance of respect in 123/9.
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