Indian captain Rohit Sharma was delighted after the Men in Blue registered a four-wicket win against Australia in the semifinal of the Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Tuesday. Sharma praised the crucial partnerships in the run-chase of 265 as India came with a collective show.
India lost two early wickets of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill but Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer added 91 runs for the third wicket. While Iyer played another crucial knock of 45 runs, Kohli scored a match-winning knock of 84 runs off 98 balls in the run-chase as he rotated the strike with guile.
After Iyer was dismissed by Adam Zampa, Axar Patel and Virat Kohli added 44 runs. Subsequently, Kohli added another imperative stand of 47 runs with KL Rahul. In the end, Hardik Pandya scored a crucial knock of 28 runs off 24 balls whereas Rahul played an unbeaten knock of 42 runs to take his team over the line.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “Kohli has done it for us for so many years. When we were batting, we were very calm. We wanted that big partnership which Shreyas and Virat had, which was really good. And then, the small partnerships between Axar and Virat and then KL and Virat and then that match-winning partnership. Towards the end, it may not look big runs, but those shots in the end by Hardik were very crucial.”
Rohit also hailed the balance of his team as they batting till number eight and also have six quality bowling options.
Rohit added, “There are a lot of experienced guys within the group, we’ll leave it up to them to make those decisions when they’re out in the middle. That’s something that I really wanted to have – six bowling options and at the same time how I can get batting till No. 8 as well. It was a bit challenging as well. When we were making up the squad, this is something that we discussed at length – how we can have six bowling options and at the same get that batting depth as well. The guys are there to know exactly what is required out of them.”
India will face either South Africa or New Zealand in the final at Dubai on Sunday.
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