After making it nine out of nine wins in the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup with a 160-run victory over the Netherlands, India skipper Rohit Sharma was delighted over the hosts finding various match-winners at different points of their campaign.
India, the two-time World Cup winners, extended their unbeaten streak to 9-0 in the ongoing tournament with the decimation of Netherlands at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. It augurs well for India to break their ten-year drought of winning a global title and will next face New Zealand in the semi-final at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday.
"Very, very pleased with how we've played in these nine games. Very clinical from game one till this game. That's only because different individuals have stepped up at different points in time. This is a good sign for a team when everyone wants to take responsibility and get the job done for the team."
"Although we play in India a lot of cricket we know the conditions, when you play different oppositions that's the challenge. We adapted really well. We started the tournament four (five) games in a row (chasing) and then we had to bat first, put the runs on the board and then seamers did the rest, along with the spinners," said Rohit after the match ended.
As table-toppers with 18 points, India have swiftly made it to their fourth straight Men's ODI World Cup semi-final. Rohit added that the team’s plan and mindset to focus on one game at a time in the tournament is giving rich results.
"Since we started the tournament, for us it was all about thinking about one game at a time and playing that game well. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it's a long tournament, 11 games in all, if you go all the way. That's a lot of games."
"So, it was important for us to break it down and focus on one game and play that well. That is what everyone did, we focused on that one game because you play in different venues, different conditions, you're gonna adapt and play accordingly. That is exactly what we did," he added.
Against Netherlands, India used nine bowlers as Rohit, along with Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill had a bowling workout, with the first two names getting a wicket each. While Kohli picked up his first ODI wicket since 2014 in the form of captain Scott Edwards, Rohit also took his first ODI since 2012 in the form of Teja Nidamanuru.
"It is something always in our mind when you have five bowlers. You want to create (those) options within the team and I think we have that option now. Here, we had nine options. It's important. This was the game where we could have tried certain things."
"The seamers going out there and bowling (those) wide yorkers when it was not needed. But we wanted to do that, as a team, as a bowling unit we wanted to try and do something different and see what we can achieve," concluded Rohit.