Centuries from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul powered India to a 160-run win over the Netherlands in Bengaluru on Sunday as they completed the group stage with a perfect nine wins in nine games.
India vs Netherlands WC: India crush Netherlands by 160 runs
Discussing and analysing India’s victory, the noted panellists of Pakistan’s sports channel ASports, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq showered praise on the Indian team that will play New Zealand in the semifinals in Mumbai on Wednesday.
But all the three former Pakistan skippers singled out India captain Rohit Sharma for special praise.
When asked to comment by the show host on India’s “incredible” batting, Akram said, “Yeah, 410/4 in 50 overs, 61 by Rohit Sharma, Gill (Shubman) 51 off 32, they scored 91 in first 10 overs, the game was over then. I mean the way they played again. Rohit Sharma 61 off 54, 8 fours, 2 sixes, I don’t think there is such a player in world cricket. (I don’t think there’s a player like him (Rohit Sharma) in world cricket). We talk about Virat Kohli, Joe RootKane Williamson, Babar Azambut this guy is different. Because he makes batting look so easy, in any situation, against any bowling attack, shots are taken with great ease (he hits shots effortlessly).”
Shoaib Malik intervened, “Ye (Rohit Sharma) He is such a batsman that there are five bowlers in the opposition, he has beaten all five of them. (he scores runs against all the five bowlers in the opposition). The rest of Wasim Bhai has not taken names, he does not kill five, he kills teens, he kills all seven, he kills all five. (the batters Wasim Akram has named they don’t hit all the 5 bowlers, they hit three or at the most the sixth or the seventh (part-time) bowlers. He (Rohit Sharma) smashes all five bowlers).”
Wasim Akram pitched in, “What is that called in Punjab? The tempo has been changed and we have come here. He hits the bowlers and the opposition. (he changes the tempo of the game as soon as he arrives at the crease and throws the opposition bowlers completely off gear)”.
Both Wasim Akram and Shoaib Malik also recalled their school days how they used to sit straight and behave in front of their teachers, comparing Rohit Sharma with them.
The anchor then pointed out that Shubman Gill has come back to the team after a bout of dengue and even he has started plundering runs.
Misbah-ul-Haq then offered his opinion, “Right from the first ball they (Rohit and Gill) were on a mission. Maybe they are thinking that they are trying to score the highest runs, because it seems that they are not stopping, they are not stopping once, taking out the fast bowlers, trying on every ball they shot and this is the thinking of the teams. That we took some time, the opposition is like this, we kept scoring runs, but they batted, look at that 5.5 overs, 50 already on the board, any ball is hit, the ball is on good length, they did a great job in front of us. shot khela hai, I mean all shots like aise nahi lag raha tha aap rahe rahe kar hain, proper cricketing shots, saamne front foot pe or back foot pethis is the beauty (Right from the first ball since they arrived at the crease, it seemed like they had thought they will pile up the highest score, they were stepping out against the fast bowlers and were relentless and unstoppable, 50 runs in 5.5 overs, they played incredible shots stepping out against the fast bowlers and all were proper cricketing shots)”.
Wasim Akram pitched in, “This talent has got to be natural, the hand-eye coordination. They say that just because he has spent more time in cricket does not mean that he is a pawn shop! (What we say in cricket that he (Rohit Sharma) has a lot of time, that doesn’t mean he owns a watch shop, it means we feel that ball is coming slow towards him)”, invoking laughter from the rest of the panel.
Comparing Rohit Sharma with former Pakistan batting great Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram continued, “Inzamam had a lot of time, the bowlers did not feel that he had any problem, if the length is coming then it will come, if it is back then it is back. (Inzamam had loads of time to play his shots, it never looked to the bowlers that Inzamam was having any problem playing his shots, good length, short of length, no problem at all), same goes for Rohit Sharma.”
Rohit fell after scoring a 54-ball 61 hitting 2 sixes and 8 fours after breaking the record for most ODI sixes in a calendar year.
Rohit became the first player to score more than 500 runs in two consecutive World Cup editions. Rohit scored 648 runs in the 2019 edition and in the match against the Netherlands on Saturday, he crossed the 500-run mark in this edition.
With 503 runs, Rohit is at the fourth spot in the highest run-getters list in this World Cup edition.
Rohit also achieved the distinction of becoming the first Indian captain to score more than 500 runs in a single World Cup edition.
Apart from this, Rohit has now also hit most sixes and most fours in a World Cup edition as a captain.
