India showed its class and might with all-out effort as they did crushed Scotland by eight wickets In a Super 12 game on Friday, ensuring that they win the ICC T20 World Cup to fight for another day. The entire match lasted only 24.1 overs as India Scots out for 85 in 17.4 overs and then batted for 6.3 overs, taking the net run-rate to +1.619, now the best of all six teams, even better than top-ranked Pakistan (+1.065) . To surpass Afghanistan’s current net run-rate of +1.481, India needed to score the required runs in 7.1 overs and KL Rahul (50 off 19 balls) and Rohit Sharma (30 off 16 balls) took the lead to ensure that Added 70 runs in five overs. Get it in style.
The fastest 50 team this edition came in in under four overs and the poor bowlers in Scotland had no idea what they felt as they hit a total of 11 fours and four sixes between them.
But that was the controllable part of the story. What they have no control over is their fate and now Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabis will control it against New Zealand on Sunday.
A win for Afghanistan would mean that India would know how to win against Namibia and enter the semi-finals when no one expected them to.
However, a New Zealand win would see India out of the tournament. The disdain with which Rahul batted showed how hurt the Indian team was and wanted to correct the least part that he could.
There were traditional pulls, pick-up pulls, flat batting shots and slog sweeps which indicated their intention to spoil the bowlers.
It was a frightening batting line-up for any opposition and India sealed the game when he was dismissed trying to hit his fourth six. In fact, it was over in the first innings itself as Virat Kohli won the toss on his 33rd birthday and called for Scotland to bat.
India’s experienced bowlers made short work of an unhygienic batting line-up with both Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja posting career-best T20 figures of 3 for 15.
Jasprit Bumrah (2/10) surpassed Yuzvendra Chahal (63 scalps) to become India’s highest wicket-taker in the shortest version now.
Plucky left-handed opener George Munsay (24 off 19 balls) smashed Bumrah for a six at square leg and reverse swept Varun Chakraborty for a boundary to indicate positive intent, but the gap in class was always clear.
Captain Kyle Coetzer (1) was first thumped on the back foot by a Bumrah yorker and then he bowled a slow delivery that stunned the Scotsman.
A deadly Shami (3/15) then sent back a dangerous looking punch, which failed to clear mid-on. That was the end of the brief bright spot of Scotland’s batting.
Disciplined Jadeja (3/15), with his ‘darts-like’ accuracy, blew up the middle order with quick dismissals of Matthew Cross (2), Richie Berrington (0) and Michael Leask (21 off 12 balls) .
Jadeja varied the pace of his deliveries, but occasionally bowled one that slid off the surface and made the batsmen quick.
Once Scotland were 44 for 4 after 10 overs, the Indian bowlers did not look back. It was a game where even percentage bowling was enough to knock down the Scottish batsmen, who did not find many options to keep the scoreboard afloat.
Scotland’s previous poor performance against weaker teams like Namibia and Afghanistan was a sign that they would not do any better against India. Once half a side got out with less than 60 on the board, the lower order was caught between survival and attack.
Callum McLeod (16 off 28 balls) did the job before being cleaned out by Shami as the Indians hardly had to bowl too many deliveries to finish off the opposition.
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Save the one where number 10 Alasdair Evans was yorkered by Shami at 90 mph. It was such a pleasant evening at the office where skipper Kohli didn’t care whether there was a sixth bowler available or not.
Ravichandran Ashwin (1/29) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/15) were also accurate for the better part of their spells.
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