If the gods ever fielded a cricket team, they would perhaps be as unstoppable as Rohit Sharma’s mortal men are at the moment. India are that good.
Challenges come and challenges go, Team India swatting them aside like errant flies. They are playing like a team possessed, armed with magical powers. After their latest win, a 243-run hammering of the Proteas at the Eden on Sunday, they stand like giants in this World Cup with eight victories on the trot.
India still have a league game to play, but have already ensured the top spot in the standings.
South Africa were billed as the toughest challenge for India. That seems like a joke now after Temba Bavuma’s men couldn’t even score 100, getting shot out for 83, chasing India’s 326/5.
Batting, bowling, fielding are now passe for Rohit’s band of boys. They should now be judged on how quickly can they finish off matches. Like on Sunday, they needed 27.1 overs to see off South Africa. Shouldn’t they have done it within 20 overs?
Actually, such one-sided have been most of India’s contests so far in this World Cup that they perhaps need to play among themselves to get better competition. How about a Jasprit Bumrah snorter against Rohit Sharma? Or Mohammed Shami sizzler to test Virat Kohli?
These propositions may sound outrageous, but then how do you sum up such
surreal domination without thinking about the unthinkable?
On the match-eve, one sensed that the point of interest was not what the result of the game would be, it was only about one Virat Kohli, his 35th birthday and whether he would gift his fans the much-awaited 49th ODI century, one that would make him an equal to Sachin Tendulkar. And that’s how the script unfolded.
Kohli is no less than a national obsession. A full house at the majestic stadium, it was like an amphitheatre
that awaited a special Kohli performance. The former captain knew that. He didn’t yield to temptations of unnecessarily playing the showstopper and instead designed a composed 101 not out off 121 balls to give the crowd what they had come for.
With Rohit (40 off 24 balls) providing a breathtaking start to the innings after opting to bat, Kohli was under no scoreboard pressure as well. He shared a 134-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer (77 off 87 balls) and stayed put till the end of the innings, with cameos from Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja revolving around him.
It was a tricky pitch, offering spinners a vicious turn and allowing seamers to move the ball. Kohli said as much after his innings, but one also felt that he was keen to get this hundred, the talk of which must have been quite burdening on Indian cricket’s latest demigod. That probably made him a bit cautious. If that’s not true, one must pass it off as just a mere coincidence that this ton is the slowest among Kohli’s collection of 49. Kohli scored at 83.47. That was also the slowest of the day among all Indians who batted.
But no one’s complaining, there’s no room to. The premonition of a Proteas disaster came as early as their second over when Quinton de Kock played on while trying to cut Mohammed Siraj. Thereafter, it was a procession of dismissals with Jadeja (5/33) playing the navigator with his left-arm tricks.
The crowd, bored with the monotony of dominance, sang the chorus, “Kohli ko ball do”. The noise was deafening, but captain Rohit turned a deaf ear to that. Gods don’t grant all your wishes.
