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India claimed their sixth consecutive win at the ODI World Cup 2023 after defending England at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. With Rohit Sharma’s (87) and Suryakumar Yadav’s (49) contribution, India managed to score 229/9. It was a task for the men in blue to restrict such a low total.
However, the Indian bowling unit was tremendous throughout the game. There was no margin of error at all. Jaspreet Bumrah and Mohammad Shami dominated the England top order by striking four wickets in the powerplay itself. Shami took a total of four wickets, followed by Bumrah with three wickets. In the spinning attack, Jadeja and Kuldeep did the rest by taking two and one wicket each.
The Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma, was very impressed with how the team performed. Especially the experienced players took up responsibility at the right time.
“Rohit Sharma: This was the game; there was a lot of character in the squad. When the times were tough, all our experienced players stood up at the right time and got the game for us. Looking at how the tournament has gone for us, batting second in the first five games, we had to come and bat here. We were challenged upfront; they bowled pretty well upfront,” said Rohit Sharma.
He also expressed how the team can rely on their experienced seamers, who can come up and strike during crucial moments in the game.
“With the experience that our seamers have now, you can always rely and bank on them to get those crucial breakthroughs. That’s exactly what our seamers did. They exploited the conditions pretty well,” Sharma added.
Sharma also mentioned how the team is pretty much in good balance and has the potential to do wonders in the final stage of the tournament.
“It’s very important that the batters put runs on the board, give them something to work with, and then rely on them to do the magic”, Hitman concluded.
India will face Sri Lanka in their next game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
