‘You have to adapt and play accordingly,’ says Rohit Sharma after entering ODI World Cup semi-finals undefeated
India defeated Netherlands by 160 runs to end their ODI World Cup 2023 competition commitments with a hundred percent win record. India will take on New Zealand in the semi-final on November 15.
New Delhi: The Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team defeated Scott Edwards’ Netherlands by 160 runs in the final competitive match of the ongoing edition of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on November 12. With this victory, the men in Blue kept their unbeaten streak alive in the run-up to the semi-finals.
The Men in Blue side put in a clinical performance with both bat and ball. Batting first Team India posts 410 runs on the scoreboard with the help of centuries from Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill also broke through the 1950s. In bowling, India used 9 bowlers. Virat and Rohit took their first World Cup wickets. Rohit was impressed with his team’s performance ahead of the crucial match against New Zealand in the semi-final.
“Since we started the tournament, it has been about thinking about one game at a time and playing that game well. We never wanted to look too far ahead because it is a long tournament. It was important for us to split it up and focus on one game and play it well. That’s what everyone did. As you play at different venues and conditions, you have to adapt and play accordingly, that’s exactly what we did,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
“Very happy with how we played in these nine games. Very clinical from game one to today. That’s because different individuals came forward at different times. This is a good sign for the team if everyone wants to take responsibility and get the job done for the team. Even though we play a lot of cricket in India, we know the conditions, but when you play against different opponents, that’s the challenge in different conditions.”
“We have adapted very well. We started the tournament chasing four matches in a row and then we had to bat first, put the runs on the board, then the seamstresses did the rest together with the spinners. It’s important that results matter to keep the locker room environment alive. There will be a lot of expectations, we wanted to keep everything aside and focus on the job at hand,” Rohit added.
“That’s something everyone believed in. We enjoyed each other’s company as the tournament started. We wanted to play the game on the field with a lot of fun and excitement and that was reflected in our performance. When we try to do things like this, we keep the atmosphere outside nice and healthy, guys usually perform very well without any burden. When you have five bowlers, you want to create those options within the team. Today we had nine (bowling) options, it’s important, this was the game where we could have tried certain things. The seamers bowled those wide yorkers when they didn’t have to, but we wanted to do that. As a bowling unit we wanted to try to do something different and see what we can achieve,” he concluded.
Team India will take on New Zealand in the first semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 15.