T20 World Cup 2022, Gr 2, IND v NED: SKY’s 51*, Kohli’s 62* drive India to 2nd win & top of Group 2
ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, Super 12, Group 2, India vs Netherlands: Virat Kohli's 62, Suryakumar Yadav's 51 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar-Axar Patel's 2-fers are top performances as India beat Netherlands by 56 runs in Super 12s game. India top Group 2 points table.
Brief Scores: India 179/2 (Kohli 62*, Rohit 53, Suryakumar Yadav 51*, Klaassen 1/33) beat Netherlands 123/9 (Pringle 20, Bhuvneshwar 2/9, Axar 2/18) by 56 runs
Player of the Match: Suryakumar Yadav (Unbeaten 51 runs in 25 balls)
Fresh from their last over victory over Pakistan thanks to a masterclass knock by Virat Kohli, India locked horns with Netherlands who lost their opening encounter against Bangladesh by a narrow margin. The fifth Group 2 game of the Super 12 stage of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 was held at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in Sydney on Thursday.
Both sides met each other for the very first time in this format. However, India have beaten Netherlands in each of their two meetings at the 50-over World Cups in 2003 and 2011, and coincidentally made it to the finals of each of those tournaments.
Rahul’s form concerns India as bowlers and batters find decent game time
Although India have won two back-to-back games, the current struggle of their opener KL Rahul has been a real concern for them who hasn’t got many runs of late. However, the shining part is getting Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suryakaumar Yadav among runs.
The bowlers too got ample game time in the middle. The likes of Mohammed Shami who hasn’t got enough preparation coming into this T20 World Cup, bowled with full intensity and rhythm while Axar Patel after a tough one over against Pakistan made a good comeback with ball in hand.
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Clinical all-round performances from India provide them back-to-back win
India captain Rohit Sharma on winning the toss decided to bat first on a used track which was expected to get slower as the game would progress. Both sides went into this game with an unchanged eleven.
India lost opener KL Rahul early to stroll in the powerplay to 32/1, before reaching 67/1 in the 10 overs as captain Rohit Sharma notched up a scratchy half-century. Later, an unbeaten 95-run stand between Virat Kohli (62* in 44 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (51* in 25 balls) propelled India to 179/2 in their 20 overs with 65 runs coming in the last five overs.
Chasing a huge score of 180, Netherlands were never in the chase with just 27/2 in the powerplay and struggled to 51/3 in 10 overs. The Indian bowling was top class as the opponents kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Finally, they could reach to 123/9, handing India a 56-run victory.