India has not been a dominant team as fans wished it to be in CWCs. But CWC 2023, has been a welcome surprise and change for them. The team has been unbeatable for other 9 teams. They dominated every team and won by good margins. They finished the league stage against Netherlands by winning with a margin of 160 runs.
The batting has come good for the team post England match in the next two matches. India won the toss and elected to bat first. On a batting pitch in Bengaluru, they scored huge. The batters have created a record has top 5 batters have scored more than 50 runs for the first time ever. No team has achieved this feat in a CWC match.
Shreyas Iyer scored 128 runs from 94 balls. KL Rahul scored century in just 62 balls, fastest for Indian team in CWCs. Before them putting a partnership of 208 runs, Rohit Sharma(61), Shubman Gill(51) and Virat Kohli(51) made their presence felt. India scored a huge total of 410/4 in 50 overs.
Netherlands found it hard to score freely. Indian bowlers also found difficulty in getting swing and seam as pitch did not help them at all. Still, they bowled well to not let batters to take full advantage of the pitch and conditions. Teja Nidamanuru(54) went after bowlers and hit 6 6’s, late in the innings. Netherlands scored 250 runs in 47.5 overs.
Interesting thing is Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma bowled in this match along with Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill. The seniors both took wickets and this is the first time they did so for India in a CWC match. They are now gearing up to face New Zealand in a CWC 2019 Semi-Final repeat on 15th November.