Surya special helps India top group
Melbourne: Zimbabwe could not bite like Holland. Zimbabwe didn't capitulate the way Bangladesh capitulated to Pakistan, but neither did India's path to the semi-finals was smooth. Although India won here on Sunday, Rohit has already got the passage to reach the semi-finals. The second team in the group would have to play against New Zealand, who topped the other group in Sydney. Now Rohit & Co will fly to Adelaide.
The second semi-final will be played on November 10. Then the final.
Geoffrey Boycott joked, "Beat England first, or else you don't think about playing the final." It's true, the way things happened one after the other in the semi-finals, it's hard to say which two teams will eventually make it to the final.
After the defeat in the previous T20 World Cup, the Indian board and Rohit's camp were down to the waist to return to Australia and win the trophy by any means. The manner in which Zimbabwe was defeated today, it is true that India has won very few matches in the recent past with so much power.
Let's talk about batting. Batting first, India made 186 for 5. Looking at the score, it would seem that India was given easy runs by Sean Williams, Sikander Razas. At the end of 16 overs, India was 124 for four.
Rohit Sharma scored 15 runs before he was caught by Wellington Masakadza off Blessing Muzarabai at square leg. Rohit's pull shot was deposited in Masakadza's hand like a letter with an address. On a relatively slow wicket, this is the first time that the Indian team played on such a pitch and the match would have been tense had not Suryakumar Yadav played an unbeaten innings of 61 runs off 25 balls. And the Man of the match award went to him for good reason.
Virat Kohli scored 26 runs off 25 balls that day. He was caught by Ryan Burl of Sean Williams. As much as
he played, there was the familiar confidence and typical innings of a No. 3 batsman in the T20 genre.
Lokesh Rahul is gradually adapting to the environment of this country. He departed scoring a free-flowing 51 runs off 35 balls. He was finally deceived by Razas' spin.
Finally, Dinesh Karthik had to be left out of the starting XI. Rishab pant was brought in. He returned after scoring 3 runs. It is difficult to say now whether Karthik will be brought back in the semi-finals.
The Indian team did not make any other change. Perhaps there is no other place to be reviewed. BCCI secretary Jay Shah has reached here. Can Axar Patel be kept out?
Zimbabwe's batting couldn't resist. At the end of 9 overs the score was 47 for 5 wickets and it was 59 for 5 in 10 overs. It was then understood that the life of this innings of Zimbabwe would not last till 20 overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar gets Wesley Madhevere in the very first ball caught by Virat Kohli at short cover.
Then Arshdeep's controlled bowling and Sami's brilliant bowling had Sean Williams back against the wall by losing 5 wickets.
From there the turned around could not stand Ashwin who picked up 3 wickets and Zimbabwe's innings stalled at 115 runs. India won by 71 runs.
The batting and bowling of left-handed fast bowlers Sikandar Raza and Richard Ngarava left an impression. If the owners of the IPL franchises want, these two can be roped in.
Zimbabwe was not supposed to win. So,, Rohit Sharma's India reached the semi-finals.
