Match-winning tons by KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer helped India pummel Netherlands in the final group stage match of the ongoing World Cup 2023 by 160 runs while playing at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, November 12. A comprehensive win over the Dutch helped India to keep their winning momentum intact ahead of their semifinal clash against New Zealand.
After electing to bat first, India batters asserted their sheer dominance at the Chinnaswamy Stadium to catch the Dutch off guard. Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma added 100 runs for the opening wicket off just 65 balls before Shubman perished while trying to accelerate further. Gill aggregated 51 runs off just 32 balls at a jaw-dropping strike rate of 159.37 and matched his captain in terms of attacking stroke play.
Rohit also scored a well-compiled fifty and became the first India captain in history to score more than 500 runs in a single edition of the World Cup. He looked on course to break Chris Gayle's all-time record of smashing the most sixes (49) in ODI World Cup history but fell in the 18th over at an individual score of 61.
Netherlands' bowling attack made a bit of a comeback as Virat Kohli also got out after scoring a fifty in the 29th over of the game. However, the Dutch bowlers lacked venom and the pair of Shreyas (128* off 94 balls) and Rahul (102 off 64 balls) utilised it to its advantage,
Shreyas scored his maiden World Cup hundred and smashed 10 fours and five maximums during his match-winning ton. He was unfortunate to miss out on the three-figure mark in the last two games against South Africa and Sri Lanka but cashed in at Chinnaswamy to lead India's charge with the bat.
Rahul was equally brilliant with the willow as the 31-year-old batter raced to his second World Cup hundred, destroying Rohit's record of scoring the fastest hundred for the Men in Blue in ODI World Cup history. The wicketkeeper-batter reached the milestone with a six off Bas de Leede in the final over of India's innings and took just 62 balls to get there. India posted a gigantic total of 410 on the board at the end.
It was always going to be a tough ask for the Dutch batters to scale the mammoth total and that's what it turned out to be despite Rohit asking several batters to roll their arms over. Max O'Dowd (30 off 42 balls), Colin Ackermann (35 off 32 balls) and Sybrand Engelbrecht (45 off 80 deliveries) showed some resistance against the top Indian bowlers and pounced on to the scoring opportunities which were presented to them by the non-regular bowlers.
Rohit's experiment gave the Bangalore crowd something to cherish in the second innings when Virat claimed his first-ever ODI World Cup scalp. Netherlands captain Scott Edwards was unfortunate to miss out on a solid batting deck as he got a faint tickle on an innocuous delivery that went past his legs and was safely held by Rahul behind the stumps.
Teja Nidamanuru entertained the crowd too as he smoked a few during his stay at the crease before getting out at an individual score of 54 off 39 balls and the Dutch got restricted for 250 runs in the 48th over.
