India steamroll Netherlands to pen history at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium

History was penned at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium last evening as Team India secured an emphatic victory over Netherlands to register their longest win streak in ODI World Cup history with nine wins in a row. 

Winning the toss, India opted to bat first and both the openers had blood in their sight as the Orange Army struggled to contain the run-flow. Rohit Sharma (61) and Shubman Gill (51) posted another century stand before the latter holed out to Teja Nidamanuru off Paul van Meekeren’s bowling. Rohit fell shortly too as Wesley Barresi grabbed a straight-forward catch offered by the Indian captain.

An incoming Virat Kohli ensured that the scoreboard kept ticking and brought up his half-century, and in the process, went past Quinton de Kock’s 591 runs in this World Cup 2023 to become the highest run-scorer in the competition. 

Virat found an amazing partner in Shreyas Iyer who had no intentions of slowing down the ante as he peppered the bowlers to all nooks and crannies of the park. After Virat chopped one onto his stumps for 51, KL Rahul continued to rain fire on the Netherlands, scoring 100 from just 52 balls. Surprisingly, Rahul had only amassed 50 from the first 40 balls while he brought up his second fifty in just 24 balls.

He also became the fastest centurion for Team India in the history of ODI World Cups. The duo of KL Rahul (102) and Shreyas Iyer (128*) posted 208 runs from just 127 balls for the fourth wicket as India garnered 410/4 at the end of their 50 overs.

Netherlands had an early stutter while trying to chase down 411 as they lost the experienced Wesley Barresi for just four runs after Mohammed Siraj produced a late wobble to fox the batter. Max O’Dowd (30) and Colin Ackermann (35) put up a few shards of resistance but the spinning duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav snuffed out the brewing fight in them.

Sybrand Engelbrecht (45) and Netherlands skipper, Scott Edwards (17), did try and restructure the chase but by the time they could get in the groove, it was a momentous surprise as a certain right-handed quick in Virat produced an important breakthrough. 

Virat’s innocuous delivery down the leg side managed to catch a whiff of Edwards’ bat and KL Rahul grabbed an excellent catch, sending the crowd into absolute ruptures at the fall of the wicket.

Jasprit Bumrah returned to bag the important wicket of Bas de Leede (12) while Siraj struck Engelbrecht to continue India’s dominance. Teja Nidamanuru did wage a single-handed war with a well-orchestrated 54 from just 39 balls, but Rohit Sharma’s men ensured that they were grabbing the bragging rights by a comfortable margin. 

Rohit himself rolled his arm over and capped things off with Teja’s scalp as India registered another mammoth victory by a staggering margin of 160 runs. Shreyas Iyer was awarded the Player of the Match for his match-winning 128 from just 94 balls.