On Sunday, November 12, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India and the Netherlands faced off in the final league encounter of the ongoing ODI World Cup.
After batting first, the Men in Blue amassed 410/4 after 50 overs, which is their second-highest total in World Cup history. Rohit Sharma & Co. accomplished another historic feat by becoming just the second team in history to have the top five batters score 50 runs or more each. The bowlers had an easier time defending under the lights as a result.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave a perfect headstart in Bengaluru’s batting paradise. Skipper Rohit hit 61 runs off 54 balls, while Gill managed to score 51 runs off 32 balls.
Ace batter Virat Kohli (51 off 56 balls) joined the skipper after Gill’s departure and went on to hit his 71st half-century in ODI cricket. India were 200 for 3 after he departed.
With a partnership of 208 runs, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul lifted the hosts to an astounding total. Rahul and Iyer both hit lots of runs to ease the burden on the bowlers. Iyer amassed a perfect 128 off just 94 balls, but his accomplice hit the fastest century (102 off 64 balls) by an Indian in the history of the competition, achieving the milestone in just 62 balls.
After a spectacular batting show by all the top 5 batters, Indian bowlers demolished Netherland's batting and sent all the players to pavilion by 47.5 overs. Chasing a massive total of 411 runs, Netherlands kept loosing wickets at quick intervals. Apart from Teja Nidamanuru (54), no other player could cross 50 runs. For Netherlands, Sybrand Engelbrecht scored 45 runs, Colin Ackermann scored 35 and Max O'Dowd hit 30 runs. All the other batters scored less than 20 runs. With this, India thrashed Netherlands by a whopping 160 runs. With this win, team India won their ninth straight match in the ongoing ODI World Cup.
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