Centuries from Shreyas Iyer (128 not out) and KL Rahul (102) powered India to 410-4 before utilising a total of nine bowlers, including the part-time contributions of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to dismiss the Dutch side to a total of 250 runs.
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The first semi-final in Mumbai on Wednesday will see the hosts taking on New Zealand, while the second last-four clash between Australia and South Africa is scheduled for the following day in Kolkata.
Skipper Rohit Sharma revealed the reasons behind India’s nine-match winning streak, their most consecutive wins in a single World Cup edition, saying the team’s approach of taking one match at a time bore successful results.
“Since we started the tournament, for us, it was all about thinking about one game at a time. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it’s a long tournament. It was important to focus on one game. Different venues and we had to adapt, that’s exactly what we did,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.
Rohit expressed his joy the way team has been clinical through out the tournament and every individual stepped up when team needed them the most at the different situations.
“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. That’s a good sign for the team. We know the conditions, but when you play different opponents, that’s a different challenge,” he further said.
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India vs Netherlands WC: India crush Netherlands by 160 runs
“We adapted really well. We started four games in a row and then we had to bat first, seamers did the rest along with the spinners. It’s important, 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,” he added.
India used nine bowlers in the match against Netherlands and Rohit reckoned this was the game where he could tinker with his bowling options.
“We wanted to play the game on the field with a lot of fun and that reflected on our performances. Today we had nine (bowling) options, it’s important, this is the game where we could have tried. Seamers bowling those wide yorkers when not needed, but we wanted to do something different,” he said.
