Indian bowlers flex their muscles at the SCG to take Netherlands down

It was a display of total mastery by the Indian bowlers at the Sydney Cricket Ground last night where they swarmed over Netherlands and took them down emphatically, defending a total of 179 runs after the top-order trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav fired.

The bowling display was so good that just picking any one bowler would have been unjust to the others. From Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s destructive opening spell, which made him a part of an elite list in the antiquity of the T20 World Cup to a thunderous finish from Arshdeep Singh barring that final over, it was an absolute rampage from the Men in Blue. Here’s taking a look back at Team India’s bowling mafia in action at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

1.    Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 3-2-9-2

Before coming to the T20 World Cup, the medium-fast ace had suffered a lot of flak for his leaky death over bowling, especially after India crashed out of the Asia Cup. But then leaving the past behind, Bhuvi has been a vanguard of the Indian bowling unit at the start of the innings that saw him tormenting Pakistan before raining down upon the Orange Legion in the T20 World Cup. He started with two maiden overs that made him the second bowler in the history of the showpiece event to rack up the aforementioned feat in the same game. His exploits included that of Vikramjit Singh and the Dutch skipper Scott Edwards. The scalp of Vikramjit was a fast bowler’s perfection as the cherry kissed the bails on the top of the off-stump in its flight path while Scott Edwards could barely resist swinging his willow cluelessly, totally deceived by the drift, holing out to Deepak Hooda.

2.    Arshdeep Singh – 4-0-37-2

Despite his final over going for a few runs with the Indian field up, hoping to clean the Orange tail, Arshdeep was once again a showstopper, keeping things tight in the latter half of the innings. His third over was an absolute gem that saw him claiming Logan van Beek and Fred Klaassen on consecutive deliveries. He was moving the ball by a fair mile, highlighting once again why he is being touted as one of the best in the business. He was also clinical with his yorker execution which was an additional bane for the Netherlands.

3.    Axar Patel – 4-0-18-2

The Indian spinners were absolutely impeccable last night that saw Axar Patel once again sticking to the line of the stumps, forcing those skitters that bagged him his first prize in the form of Max O’Dowd while Bas de Leede, bamboozled by Axar’s pace, lofted it straight into the hands of a running Hardik Pandya. There was very little room on offer from the Indian offie that didn’t allow the Netherlands batters to break free, paving a smoother path to victory for the Men in Blue.

4.    Ravichandran Ashwin – 4-0-21-2

Once again making excellent use of his experience, Ashwin was turning a web of enigma around his Orange counterparts as their batters could hardly bring out the big guns with the asking rate leapfrogging to a ginormous number with every dot he bowled. He was also rewarded handsomely, claiming the wickets of a menacing Colin Ackermann and Tom Cooper with a couple of rare gems, rattling the spine of the Dutch chase.