Bengaluru: India vs Netherlands in the final league match of the ICC ODI Cricket World Cup at 2 PM today at the Cinnamon Cricket Stadium in Bengaluru. It is expected that Virat Kohli will get a chance to make his 50th century in this match.
The league matches of the 13th edition of the ICC ODI Cricket World Cup series concludes today. Hosts India will face Netherlands today in their last league match. In the current series, the Indian team has won all 8 matches and is unbeaten. Due to this, the Indian team may show seriousness in completing the game against the Netherlands team with a win.
Virat Kohli equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most centuries with his 49th century in a league match against South Africa in Kolkata. Virat Kohli is expected to score another century in today’s match and break Sachin Tendulkar’s record.
Kohli has played for Bengaluru in the IPL so he knows the nature of the pitch better than other players. This will surely bring out high level of performance from him. Kohli has accumulated 543 runs in the current series so far. That aside, the Indian team may try to improve a few things in today’s game ahead of the semi-final round.
While all the batsmen in the Indian team are contributing, only Suryakumar Yadav is stumbling. Surya Kumar Yadav, who was included in the playing XI due to Hardik Pandya’s injury, has yet to make the most of his opportunity.
Suryakumar Yadav has scored only 85 runs at an average of 21.25 in 4 matches. He is one of the batsmen in the team who has not scored a single half-century and may try to swing the bat and add runs in today’s game. Similarly, openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill are likely to focus on standing up and laying a good foundation.
The pair put up a 50-plus run partnership for the first wicket in just 3 games. In the other 5 matches, they were quickly dismissed. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill scored 88 runs in 12.4 overs against Bangladesh, 71 runs in 11.1 overs against New Zealand and 62 runs in 5.5 overs against South Africa.
In the other 5 matches the pair added 5, 32, 23, 26 and 4 runs for the first wicket respectively. Thus, in today’s game, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill may focus on a big run chase. These minor flaws did not affect the Indian team as they won all 8 games in a row.
However, the Indian team may try to fix these before the semi-final round. In bowling, the Indian team is giving severe pressure to the opponents in the current series. While Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj are giving challenges with fast bowling, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav are stifling the opposition batsmen in the spin. They are ready to rise again.
The Netherlands team is at the bottom of the points table with 2 wins and 6 losses from 8 matches played. Having already missed out on a place in the semi-finals, the team may try to put in a performance to watch against a strong India.
