In this World Cup, India had to set a total for the first time ever. And they had a rough start at 40 for 3 in the 12th over when they faced England in Lucknow. From there, their captain and Man of the Match, Rohit Sharma, emphasized that he needed to “bat to the situation” and apply all of his skills on a difficult pitch.
“It’s just not about going and playing my shots; when you have that much experience, you’ve got to use that experience and do whatever is necessary for the team, and it was at that point in time necessary for me to take the game as deep as possible, create that partnership, and get to a decent total,” Rohit said following the game.
After England put India in, he raced to 17 off 11 in the first two overs. However, as England kept finding ways to score runs at the other end, he eased his way to 29 off 40 before hitting his next boundary, which came in the 14th over as he reached 87 off 101, setting up India for a 100-run victory.
Though Rohit believed India had left a lot of runs on the field, the victory margin may be as convincing as they come. Together with KL Rahul, he had completed the first repair job, scoring 91 runs for the fourth wicket. He then added 33 more runs in a partnership with Suryakumar Yadav before finishing 13 runs short of a century. After that, England steadily made progress, matching India at 229 for 9.
“I still felt like we were 20–30 runs short once we finished,” Rohit stated. The new ball was a little difficult at first, and as the game progressed, it was evident that the ball grew softer, making it difficult to spin strikes. However, we acknowledged in the midst that we needed to keep pushing forward, and eventually, as I mentioned, we had a respectable partnership there. However, as I mentioned before, we fell short by 20 to 30 runs in the last inning.”
Rohit stated that some of India’s problems stemmed from their batters being loose, regardless of the circumstances. Chris Woakes bowled Shubman Gill with a superb delivery, perhaps a little too airily. Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then gave away catches, with the former going for a duck. Following their repairs, Rahul, Rohit, and later Suryakumar were discovered pursuing high-profile roles.
“Losing three wickets in the first powerplay isn’t the best position, but in a situation like that, all you want to do is develop that extended partnership, which we did. We weren’t terrific with the bat today. However, a few guys, including me, threw it away at the end,” Rohit remarked. “But at that point, all I could think to do was stay optimistic and desire to put the balls in my area away. That’s how you regain the upper hand over the bowler and the opposition, but when you consider the whole picture, I believed we were short by 30 runs.”
India swiftly tore apart England’s lineup, with pacers Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah causing the most early damage. Those lost runs were soon forgotten. With the expertise that our seamen now possess, you know you can always count on them to come good and get you those key breakthroughs, and that is exactly what our seamen achieved. Rohit was all praise for his attack. They made good use of the circumstances, and in my opinion, they placed the ball in the proper spots to make the batters second-guess themselves.”
“You know, when you have a bowling line-up like that, it’s very important that the batters put the runs on the board, give them something to work for, and then rely on them to do the magic.”
Riets Sharma
When Michael Atherton questioned Rohit about whether India’s offense was the most well-rounded in the competition during the post-match presentation, he replied, “We’ve got a good balance.” There are quite a few bowling alternatives available to me, and some of them have experience bowling in these conditions. A handful of seamers and good spinners have also played in these conditions extensively.
“So you know, when you have a bowling line-up like that, it’s very important that the batters put the runs on the board, give them something to work for, and then rely on them to do the magic.”
And they worked their magic, dismissing England with 15 overs remaining to maintain India’s perfect record at the top of the table and hand the reigning champions their fifth defeat in six encounters.
