India’s match against the Netherlands produced a number of highlight clips, largely from the former. They batted first and put on a show, particularly in the first 10 overs and the last 10 with KL Rahul breaking the record for the fastest ever World Cup century by an Indian and Shreyas Iyer scoring his own first World Cup ton. Then the Indian bowlers put on a masterclass and in addition to that, there was the unusual sights of seeing Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav all getting some overs under their belt as well. Moreover, Kohli and Rohit ended up getting wickets too.
But one highlight came from the commentary box, which doesn’t happen too often during a cricket match. Ian Smith, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper who is now one of the most popular commentators in the game especially during big tournaments, lauded India’s Ravi Shastri for the way he conducts the toss before a match. The former India head coach is known for his booming voice and he has often got the crowd pumped up with his toss announcements.
“You’ve reinvented the toss Ravi, it used to be pretty boring. Out there in the middle, two captains, match referee, toss the coin..” said Smith to which Shastri said that nothing has changed. “It’s the same now Smithy, it’s absolutely the same,” he said.
This prompted Smith to break into his best impersonation of Shastri at the toss, thus cracking the latter and former India captain Anjum Chopra up in the commentary box. “Ravi Shastri! Welcome to Bengaluru! Happy Diwali day to you all! And now we shall have the toss of the coin. The almighty Richie Richardson is out in the middle. Now listen to me please, everybody,” he said.
India maintain their perfect record
India were as dominant as ever and recorded their ninth consecutive win by beating the Netherlands by 160 runs. All the Indian batters, except Suryakumar Yadav who faced just one ball, scored 50 or more. Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten on 128 off 94 while KL Rahul broke the record for the fastest century by an Indian in the World Cup, making 102 in just 64 balls. It all helped India put up a score of 410/4 after which their high-performing bowling lineup took over. Apart from the usual suspects of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma also tossed the ball to Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav before bowling what turned out to be the last over of the match himself. Moreover, Kohli and Rohit ended up picking a wicket each as well.
