Rachin Ravindra has surprised all, including himself, with an impressive performance in his first World Cup.
The all-rounder, who said he was exceeding his own expectations, hit his second century of the tournament during Saturday’s narrow defeat by Australia at Dharamsala.
“Yeah, I guess you probably look at it at the start and be obviously grateful to be here and how things have worked out,” Ravindra told reporters when asked whether he had performed better than he expected to in the showpiece.
His 89-ball 116 against five-time champion Australia took his tally in the tournament to 406 runs and gave the Black Caps a fighting chance before they fell to a five-run defeat in the highest-scoring match in World Cup history.
New Zealand, runners-up at the previous two World Cups, are third in the table and in contention to reach the semi-finals.
Born to Indian parents, Ravindra has enjoyed plenty of support in the country and said the crowd in Dharamsala was among the best he had played in front of.
“As a kid, you always dream of the crowd chanting your name and it was cool to see them do that on multiple occasions even when the Australians were batting and
also when Jimmy Neesham did his thing at the end,” Ravindra said.
“I think it’s always special, you soak in those moments and hopefully never really take them for granted.”
With inputs from Reuters
