Suryakumar Yadav leads the charge as India outclass Zimbabwe in the final Super 12 game

With India already through to the semis even before their final group stage fixture kickstarted, it was more of a statement-making occasion for the Men in Blue with Zimbabwe in sights at the MCG. Despite spasmodic bursts of promise, they could do very little to thwart the untenable Indian juggernaut and the results were for everyone to witness.

Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch that had some initial seam in it but seemed pretty good per se. The two openers were off to a phenomenal start, thanks to some nifty footwork and a couple of well-carved strikes right over the bowler’s head. However, the Indian captain couldn’t sustain the early momentum and a slightly mistimed effort went straight down the gullet of Wellington Masakadza.

However, the fall of the Indian captain did very little to deter the Men in Blue as Virat Kohli continued with his rich vein of form while KL Rahul comfortably dictated the proceedings at the other end. The duo piled up a 60-runs stand for the second wicket before Kohli miscued his effort to flick Sean Williams and holed out to Ryan Burl at the long-off boundary.

The fall of Kohli was followed by a couple of quick wickets as Rishabh Pant’s tryst with misfortune continued while KL Rahul couldn’t add up much either as India teetered at 101 for 4. Suryakumar Yadav was joined by Hardik Pandya and the duo put a rock-solid display to catapult India to the fore again.

SKY played another gem of a knock as an impeccable 61 from 25 balls carved the path perfectly for the Indians en route to a momentous total while Hardik Pandya occupied the in-house seat to Surya’s slaughter of the Zimbabweans.

Chasing 187, Zimbabwe was stunned on the opening delivery of their innings as Virat Kohli grabbed a fine low catch to return Wesely Madhevere for a golden duck. Regis Chakabva could do very little to trouble the scorers as Arshdeep Singh whipped out an in-swinger which razed past the Zimbabwean wicket-keeper’s defence to leave his stumps rattled.

Sean Williams and Craig Ervine put an initial show but it would hardly create a spot of bother for the on song Indians, as Mohammed Shami returned to bag the crucial scalp of Williams.

Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl desperately tried to salvage some pride but the ask was too steep and the Indian bowlers were in no mood to be defied. A 60-run stand between Burl and Raza came to an end as Ravichandran Ashwin barreled through Burl’s defence and followed it up with an imperative double whammy removing Wellington Masakadza and Richard Ngarava in a very short span of time.

It was just a matter of moments before India wrapped up the contest and it came through Axar Patel who outdid Tendai Chatara to put him out of his misery, using his pace to beat the latter. Suryakumar Yadav was awarded the Player of the match for his reckoning 25-ball-61 as India confirmed their place in the semis, topping their respective group to set up a semi-final date with England on Thursday at the Adelaide Oval.