KL Rahul’s pillaging hundred, the quickest by an Indian in World Cup, and Shreyas Iyer’s doubts-allaying 128 lit up the Diwali day as India mowed down Netherlands by 160 runs in Bengaluru on Sunday, registering their ninth consecutive victory within the showpiece. It helped India end their league engagements with 18 factors, and now they may transfer to Mumbai for the high-stakes semi-final conflict towards New Zealand on Wednesday. Rahul’s blitz and Iyer’s posh unbeaten 94-ball hundred mixed properly with fifties by Shubman Gill (51), Rohit Sharma (61) and Virat Kohli (51), powering India to a mammoth 410 for 4, their second highest World Cup complete.

Thus, India turned the third group on this match to publish 400 after South Africa and New Zealand. The Indian bowlers didn’t must sweat a lot to skittle the Dutch for 250 as even Kohli and Rohit, who took the ultimate scalp, discovered themselves among the many wicket-takers.

The Indian innings was dotted by two large stands that brilliantly exhibited aggressive batsmanship, so diligently adopted by the hosts all through this occasion.

Rohit and Gill began the carnage with a forceful 100-run alliance off simply 71 balls for the opening wicket. Rahul and Iyer exponentiated that gathering 208 runs for the fourth wicket in little over 21 overs, and 122 runs cascaded within the closing 10 overs alone.

The tons by Iyer and Rahul will delight the Indian administration no finish forward of the knockouts by way of middle-order batters’ productiveness.

However, Iyer’s knock will please the thinktank by that bit extra. There has been chatter across the right-hander’s susceptibility towards short-pitched balls and he cleared it by some extent right here.

The Netherland pacers did strive that technique towards Iyer however the Mumbaikar was proper as much as the duty, taking part in the pulls with consolation.

He made 82 runs on the on-side throughout his innings and 35 runs got here off pulls or horizontal-batted pictures. It might need stuffed him additionally with some stage of confidence forward of the crunch match towards the Kiwis.

But his innings was not nearly clearing the doubts as he scientifically broke down the Dutch bowling unit. In reality, Iyer’ was the type of ODI innings that one can embody in teaching archives as a mannequin for budding cricketers.

The greatest spotlight of Iyer’s batting is his capability to keep away from dangers – the attention of bowlers and areas to focus on to maintain the run-flow regular. It was on full view on the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Usually a fantastic participant of spin, Iyer does have a weak point towards the gradual left-armers, evidenced by a lowered strike-rate of 90 towards that sort as in comparison with different exponents of gradual bowling.

In line with that, he performed out Roelof van der Merwe for singles and twos whereas concentrating on offie Aryan Dutt and pacers Paul van Meekeren and Logan van Beek.

Van Meekeren felt the warmth particularly as Iyer lofted him for 2 80m sixes over long-on and canopy because the Dutch pacer gave an excessive amount of width to free his fingers.

They weren’t manufactured pictures however the balls had been begging to be hit, and Iyer simply obliged.

Soon, he notched up his hundred with a single to mid-off off pacer Bas de Leede, and it took him simply 84 balls.

Rahul, the truth is, began fairly steadily, and targeted extra on giving strike to the in-touch Iyer.

The first 30 balls he confronted produced 26 runs, however as soon as he determined to carve a spot for himself within the partnership the subsequent 33 balls noticed Rahul pummelling 76 runs.

The Bengaluru man unbundled a few of these pictures that make his batting a charming view. Iyer most popular the on-side extra to get his runs, however Rahul’s shot-making touched all components of the bottom.

While he made 58 runs on the leg-side, 44 runs got here by means of the off. It is hard to bowl to Rahul when is on the button and the Netherlands bowlers, particularly Meekeren and De Leede, felt the warmth.

The signature swat-flick six off Van Meekeren over mid-wicket drew wows from the vacation crowd, whereas a slice-cut off Van Beek over deep backward level was all about on the spot innovation.

The 31-year-old quickly introduced up his seventh one-day hundred in vibrant model too – smashing two successive sixes off pacer De Leede over the mid-wicket area, and all he took was simply 62 balls.

With that hundred, Rahul overcame Rohit’s World Cup document of 63-ball ton which the latter set through the match towards Afghanistan.

However, the marauding begin on the high given by Rohit and Gill as soon as India batted by selection was simply as necessary.

Gill did the early operating for India on a Chinnaswamy pitch that supplied a touch of bounce, producing his virtually nil-follow by means of pulls and different vary of pictures predominantly on the leg-side.

After a barely sedate begin, Rohit additionally slipped into overdrive to punish the Netherlands bowlers.

But the ambition to speed up led to the downfall of each of them, giving catches to the deep. But Kohli and Iyer added 71 runs off 66 balls to maintain India chugging.

Just as Kohli seemed primed for that much-anticipated fiftieth ODI hundred, Van der Merwe castled him with a skidder that rushed beneath his downcoming bat.

However, later Kohli had a sugary second when he acquired the wicket of Dutch captain Scott Edwards, caught down the leg by Rahul behind the stumps, sending the spectators right into a delirium.

Even Gill and Suryakumar Yadav additionally turned their arms for a few overs giving the proceedings a fin-de-siecle contact because the hosts used 9 bowlers.

The Netherlands’ chase had nothing to put in writing house about, other than a brisk fifty by Teja Nidamanuru (54 off 39 balls) as they unravelled progressively.

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