Team India will take on New Zealand in the first semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15.
New Delhi: Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team defeated Scott Edwards’ Netherlands by 160 runs in the final league stage match of the ongoing edition of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, on November 12. With this win the Men in Blue kept their undefeated streak alive ahead of the semi-finals.
The Men in Blue side put on a clinical performance with both bat and ball. Batting first Team India post 410 runs on the scoreboard with the help of centuries from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill smashed fifties as well. In bowling India used 9 bowlers. Virat and Rohit picked up their maiden World Cup wickets. Rohit was impressed with his team’s performance ahead of the crucial clash against New Zealand in semis.
“Since we started the tournament, for us, it was all about thinking about one game at a time and playing that game well. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it’s a long tournament. It was important for us to break it down and focus on one game and play that well. That is what everyone did. Because you play in different venues and different conditions, you got to adapt and play accordingly, that’s exactly what we did,” said Rohit in the post-match presentation.
“Very pleased with how we have played in these nine games. Very clinical from game one till today. That’s because different individuals have stepped up at different times. This is a good sign for the team when everyone wants to take the responsibility and get the job done for the team. Although we play a lot of cricket in India, we know the conditions, but still when you play different opposition, that’s the challenge in different conditions.”
“We adapted really well. We started the tournament four games in a row chased and then we had to bat first, put the runs on the board, then seamers did the rest along with the spinners. It’s important, the results do matter to keep the dressing room environment lively. There’s going to be a lot of expectations, we wanted to keep everything aside and focus on the job at hand,” Rohit added.
“That is something everyone bought into. We enjoyed the company of each other once the tournament started. We wanted to play the game on the field with a lot of fun, excitement and that reflected on our performances. When we try and do these kind of things, we keep the atmosphere nice and healthy outside, guys tend to perform really well without any burden. When you have five bowlers, you want to create those options within the team. Today we had nine (bowling) options, it’s important, this was the game where we could have tried certain things. The seamers bowling those wide yorkers when it was not needed, but we wanted to do that. As a bowling unit, we wanted to try doing something different and see what we can achieve,” he concluded.
Team India will take on New Zealand in the first semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15.