India completed yet another win over Pakistan in a World Cup fixture as they beat the arch-rivals by 89 runs (D/L method) to continue the win streak. India now lead Pakistan 7-0 in World Cup. Here’s a look at who said what.
Rohit Sharma | Man of the Match: Really happy with the way we played as a team. We wanted to get out on the park and play a game of cricket. It can get frustrating at times as our last game was washed out due to rain. We had an intent of playing solid cricket and we did that today. I was unhappy with the way I played that shot. He just pushed mid-on back and got fine-leg up; that was a little misjudgement from my side. When you’re set you want to get as many runs as possible, so it was a disappointment when I got out. I wasn’t thinking about the double hundred, trust me. It was a good pitch and I wanted to continue batting as long as possible. We wanted to kill the game there with our partnership, but unfortunately I got out at the wrong time. I think Rahul played really well, he took time and that was required at that point. Can’t go out there and play shots right away. He took his time, saw the new ball off but unfortunately even he got out at the wrong time. The opening spell was always going to be threatening and we wanted to play out the new ball; we got a good start and we built on from there.
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Sarfaraz Ahmed | Losing skipper: We won a good toss but unfortunately we didn’t bowl in the right areas, Credit goes to Rohit, he played really well. Our plan was to pitch it up but we didn’t hit the right areas. We won a good toss but we just didn’t capitalize and conceded too may runs. I think the ball was turning which is why we picked two spinners, who bowled well, but the Indian batsmen played them really well. We were going really well with the bat as well, but we lost two-three quick wickets in the middle which is when we lost the match. It is definitely getting tougher and tougher but we have four matches and hopefully we’ll win all four of them.
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Virat Kohli | Winning skipper: To be honest, the pitch wouldn’t have made much of a difference. The only factor that I thought was different was that the pitch started turning towards the last half of our innings. We wanted to bowl first in overcast conditions as the pitch had something in it, and if we bowled in the right areas, there was enough for the bowlers. The template has been really nice in the first three games till now – Rohit single-handedly winning us the first game, a team effort in the second and today was Rohit’s day again. You could say that to get to 330, you need a team effort, KL set a great foundation with Rohit and Rohit after getting to 70-75 is unstoppable and he showed again why he’s such a good ODI player. It allowed me to play a certain kind of role and it allowed Hardik to come and explode in the end. It has worked till now, gives us a lot of solidity in the middle and it is a role that I am happy playing for the team.
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It is going really nicely at the moment. Kuldeep was brilliant, those guys were only trying to play him out. A longer spell helped in that situation and he was getting into rhythm. They were thinking that he would go out of the attack sooner rather than later. That ball to dismiss Babar was just outstanding with the drift, the turn and just beating the batsman batting so well. This is the best he has been bowling since coming to England and him confident with Chahal is going to be an important factor for us in the tournament. I think they outplayed us in the Champions Trophy final, but apart from that we have played good cricket against them. If you focus on this game with too much emotion, things can go haywire. We never approach these games from the fans’ atmosphere, but as cricketers we need to be professional and understand what needs to be done on the field. Bhuvi’s case looks like a niggle, a case of slipping on the footmarks. It doesn’t look too serious at the moment and looks like he could recover in a couple of games from now, maximum of three games. He is going to be an important factor for us so hopefully he can recover in time. But we have Shami with us and it shouldn’t be much of a worry for us. Even Bhuvi doesn’t think his niggle is too bad and that time would heal it.
