India continue winning momentum

Sydney: India seem to be on a fast train after defeating Pakistan as it took another step towards the semi-finals without making any changes in the team and defeated the Netherlands by 56 runs on Thursday.

Though the trophy is still a long way off, there is a sense of desperation in the team's game. Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey did not give the wrong information. Heard from him the other day that none of Melbourne's first XI players wanted to sit out.

And indeed, Rohit took to the Sydney Cricket Ground with an unchanged team. Right now the Indian team means Virat Kohli. As usual, he was the top scorer against the Netherlands: 62 off 44 balls.

When the run rate got stuck, he called for a six. Even in front of the famous bowlers, he hit fours and sixes in a flurry of cricket shots. Earlier, Virat added 73-run with Rohit Sharma for the second wicket. As the pitch was a bit slow, Rohit initially had trouble timing his strokes.

It was understood again and again that he was not in a very good rhythm. Since morning, visitors were entering with a lot of banners for Suryakumar Yadav. One read, 'Surya, we love you'. He did not disappoint them and remained unbeaten on 51 runs off 25 balls. The most important thing is that Virat and Suryakumar added 35 runs to hasten the run-gathering effort in the last three overs! The whole cricket world is afraid of this rhythm.

With Virat's excellent form coupled with a changed Hardik and Suryakumar, the Indian batting has started to look like the best in the world again.

KL Rahul's LBW from the ball of Paul van Meekeren was considered a wrong decision. Standing at the non-striker's end, Rohit saw this but did not go for DRS. Chasing 180 runs, the Netherlands was stopped at 123 runs.