On 'Cloud Nine': India win all league showdowns

Bengaluru: KL Rahul's pillaging hundred, the fastest by an Indian in World Cup, and Shreyas Iyer's doubtsallaying 128 lit up the Diwali day as India mowed down Netherlands by 160 runs here on Sunday, registering their ninth consecutive victory in the showpiece.

It helped India finish their league engagements with 18 points, and now they will move to Mumbai for the high-stakes semi-final clash against New Zealand on Wednesday.

Rahul's blitz and Iyer's posh unbeaten 94-ball hundred combined well with fifties by Shubman Gill (51), Rohit Sharma (61) and Virat Kohli (51), powering India to a mammoth 410 for 4, their second highest World Cup total.

Thus, India became the third team in this tournament to post 400 after South Africa and New Zealand. The Indian bowlers did not have to sweat much to skittle the Dutch for 250 as even Kohli and Rohit, who took the final scalp, found themselves among the wicket-takers.

The Indian innings was dotted by two big stands that brilliantly exhibited aggressive batsmanship, so diligently followed by the hosts throughout this event.

Rohit and Gill started the carnage with a forceful 100- run alliance off just 71 balls for the opening wicket. Rahul and Iyer exponentiated that collecting 208 runs for the fourth wicket in little over 21 overs, and 122 runs cascaded in the final 10 overs alone.

The tons by Iyer and Rahul will delight the Indian management no end ahead of the knockouts in terms of middle-order batters' productivity. However, Iyer's knock will please the thinktank by that bit more.

There has been chatter around the right-hander's susceptibility against short-pitched balls and he cleared it by some degree here.

The Netherland pacers did try that strategy against Iyer but the Mumbaikar was right up to the task, playing the pulls with comfort.

He made 82 runs on the on-side during his innings and 35 runs came off pulls or horizontal-batted shots. It might have filled him also with some level of confidence ahead of the crunch match against the Kiwis.

But his innings was not just about clearing the doubts as he scientifically broke down the Dutch bowling unit. In fact, Iyer' was the kind of ODI innings that one can include in coaching archives as a model for budding cricketers. (PTI)