India sink Netherlands at the SCG as Suryakumar Yadav unleashes late blitz

The ones who thought that the 19th over played by India could have been a game changer and a humdinger of a remarkable upset, had to be content with another disappointment as the Men in Blue imposed a punishing defeat on the Netherlands at the SCG to surge to the top of the points table in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage.

Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first as India started on a wary note. Despite losing KL Rahul early, the Indian captain motored along comfortably with a cautious Virat Kohli as India kept the scoreboard ticking.

Weathering the initial drift, the captain shook off the early jitters as he pressed his foot on the pedal with the urge to go big finally coming to the fore. Kohli joined the party in no time with Team India well-placed at the halfway stage.

Rohit fell for a well-constructed 53, trying to clear the boundary. However, the captain’s departure did very little to dent the Indian spirits as Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli held the mast for the Men in Blue strongly, filling winds in the sails as the final overs were up for some old-school hammering.

Surya blazed an imperious blitz, firing 51 from 25 balls while Kohli stayed unbeaten for 62 from just 44 balls as India finished at 179 for the loss of 2 from their quota of 20 overs.

Chasing 180, the Orange Legion could do very little to fire off to a decent start as Bhuvneshwar Kumar kissed the top of Vikramjit Singh’s off-stump to issue an early caution. Max O’Dowd and Bas de Leede tried putting up a fight but Axar Patel was once again clinical with his execution of the straight deliveries that found Max’s timbre and produced that all-important mishit from de Leede.

Post de Leede’s fall, it was a collapse for the Men in Orange as they were barely able to keep up with India while the Indian spinners did a decent job as Ashwin and Axar shared four wickets between them before the pacers returned to finish the job.

It was a collective show of brilliance from the Indian bowlers while some clinical fielding allowed the Men in Blue to keep a fair margin between them and their counterparts, shooting up the net run rate to a staggering +1.42. SKY was awarded the Player of the Match for his late blitz that helped India pile up those crucial runs in the end.