Indian captain Rohit Sharma added another feather to his cap as he claimed his first wicket in a Cricket World Cup match on Sunday. Rohit rolled his arm as India needed just one wicket to win the match against Netherlands in Bengaluru and delivered after bowling just five deliveries. Wife Ritika Sajdeh, who was watching from the stands, smiled as she saw the India captain doing something unique on the 22-metre strip.
India were great with the bat and scored 410 runs with the top 5 batters scoring more than 50 runs. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, on the other hand, registered centuries. Against minnows Netherlands, with their position at the top of the points table already sealed, India gave the likes of Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill the opportunity to bowl in the match. Rohit himself also retired from spin.
Kohli and Rohit then took wickets in the match. Here is the video of Rohit’s first World Cup wicket:
Right arm off spin – Rohit Sharma gets a wicket #INDvNED ll #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/Xg7kM7LB5U
— VECTOR⁴⁵ (@Vector_45R) November 12, 2023
During the post-match presentation ceremony, Rohit gave an insight into the Indian campaign so far, admitting that he was quite pleased with the way his team has adapted to the challenges posed.
“Since we started the tournament, it has been about thinking about one match at a time. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it is a long tournament. It was important to focus on one match. Different locations and we had to adapt, that’s exactly what we did. Very pleased with how we played in these nine games. Very clinical from game one to today. That’s because different individuals have gone a step further at different times. That is a good sign for the team,” Rohit said
When asked about the bowling experiments, Rohit said with a smile on his face that India had nine options that day.
“We know the conditions, but when you play against different opponents it’s a different challenge. We adapted very well. We started four games in a row and then we had to bat first, the Seamers did the rest together with the spinners. It’s important, results matter to keep the dressing room environment alive. There will be a lot of expectations, we wanted to keep everything aside and focus on the job at hand. We wanted to enjoy the game on the pitch and reflect that on our performance. Today we had nine (bowling) options, it’s important, this is the game we could have tried in. Seamers bowled those wide yorkers when they didn’t need to, but we wanted to do something different,” he added .
India will now take on New Zealand in the semi-finals of the World Cup.
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