India-Pakistan World Cup clash: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli can surpass Tendulkar’s record
Apart from numerous responses from the fans, there was a reply from none other than Rohit Sharma.Seeing his name left out, Rohit Sharma posted: “Someone’s missing here. Not easy to work from home, I guess.” He was of course, referring to himself.
If there is a shot that the Indian captain and opener owns and romances, it is the pull shot. Blessed with the ability to pick up length quickly, he gets into positions early to hit even the fastest bowlers deep into the stands.
In a dominating display of chasing down a score of 192 against Pakistan in a high-stakes World Cup encounter, Rohit decided to troll the ICC again. This time, with bat in hand.
The pull shot off Shaheen Shah Afridi in the bowler’s fourth over landed miles over deep square leg. The pull essayed against Haris Rauf in the 15th over was even better, as the ball was pacier and was pitched just short of a length. He rocked back and pulled it over square leg.
But the pull is not the only shot that Rohit thrilled the crowd here with. The sliced cover drive and the lofted shot while stepping out, both off Rauf that went for sixes over point and long on respectively, were equally stunning for their execution.
Over the past year, the Indian skipper has made a commitment to himself to play an aggressive brand of cricket, especially against the new ball, to make an early statement. On Saturday, the first ball he faced from Afridi, a full inswinging delivery pitched on middle-stump, was flicked to fine leg for four.
It sent a message that India were not going to plod and ponder their way to the 192-run target. They were going to go full blast. Rohit made several other statements too on a pitch that was not ideal for strokeplay. The dance down the track off Mohammad Nawaz to deposit him over long on. The swat off a Shadab Khan full toss over mid-wicket, followed by the square drive by opening his wrists. If batting was a buffet, Rohit had the full spread on at Motera.
Ironically, the shot that got him out for 86 (63 balls, 6×4, 6×6), a hoick off an Afridi slow off-cutter that stuck into the pitch and hit the toe-end of his bat, was the only time he looked ugly. Shubman Gill (16) and Virat Kohli (16) played some attractive shots, but they fell while trying to force the pace. Kohli miscued a pull to Nawaz off Hasan Ali, while Gill square cut Afridi to Shadab at point.
Shreyas Iyer helped himself to a stylish, unbeaten 53 (62 balls, 3×4, 2×6), showing his class against spin bowling and lofting Shadab and Nawaz for sixes and KL Rahul 19* (29 balls, 2×4) ensured that there was no drama. India were not going to waste the effort of the bowlers, especially Man of the Match Jasprit Bumrah (7-1-19-2), who had bowled out Pakistan for 191 after Rohit won the toss and fielded.
With three wins out of three and an NRR of +1.821, India now sit on top of the table and have a four-day break before they take on Bangladesh in Pune on the 19th. Pakistan travel to Bengaluru to face Australia on the 20th. Along with the hurt of losing tamely to their arch rivals again, they will also be carrying worries over the lack of potency in their bowling attack, something that India worried about for several years.