Shreyas Iyer and K L Rahul led India’s batting masterclass as the hosts completed their undefeated run into the knockouts with a hammer blow to Netherlands, who ended their World Cup with a 160-run defeat.
Centurions Shreyas and Rahul staged a 208-run partnership after a 100-run stand between first-wicket pair Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had laid the foundation for India’s 410 for 4. Virat Kohli also passed fifty and put on 71 with Shreyas as the Netherlands bowlers – save for a short period as Kohli bedded in – had no rebuttal for an India batting line-up which swung the door off its hinges as it burst into the room and delivered an overpowering monologue with the home crowd hanging off every word.
It began with the 18th ball of the match when Gill charged down the pitch and launched Aryan Dutt onto the roof of the stand past long-on. Dutt had already conceded 16 runs from his 11 balls to that point, 12 of those in fours to Rohit, who swept and cut to great effect. If ever there was an example of the muscle India have shown at this tournament, this was it. And while Netherlands didn’t exactly crumble in pursuit, batting deep into the 48th over for their 250 as India used nine bowlers including Kohli and Gill, they had been left with too much to do.
Rohit tormented the Netherlands bowlers either side of the pitch while Gill was downright cruel, clearing the boundary almost at will. Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe entered in the ninth over to try and prise apart a stand between two right- handers which by now had ballooned to 73 runs. He was the fifth bowler to try, all of them in vain after 10 overs, as Rohit and Gill closed out the powerplay on 91 without loss with five sixes and 10 fours between them.
So it was with audible disbelief that the crowd exhaled when Gill departed for 51 off 32 balls, failing to clear Teja Nidamanuru just inside the boundary rope at deep backward square leg. Then, having managed to stem the flow of runs, Netherlands rejoiced when Rohit picked out Wes Barresi wide of long-on to fall for 61.
Brief scores:
India 410/4 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 128*, KL Rahul 102, Rohit Sharma 61, Virat Kohli 51, Subman Gill 51; Bas de Leede 2/82) beat Netherlands 250 in 47.5 overs (Max O’Dowd 30, Collin Ackermann 35, Sybrand Engelbrecht 45, Teja Nidamanuru 54; Jasprit Bumrah 2-33, Mohammed Siraj 2-29, Kuldeep Yadav 2-41, Ravindra Jadeja 2-49) by 160 runs
(Cricinfo)