Unbeaten but Unconvincing: India sweep group stage 4-0 — Tougher tests await in Super 8

TimesofIndia.com successful Ahmedabad: It's been 4 games and 4 wins but India are yet to person a implicit show with the bat successful the ongoing T20 World Cup. Unlike the appetisers served successful the bilateral which preceded the multi-nation tournament, the main people has fallen acold abbreviated of expectations.

The Men successful Blue person had antithetic heroes bail them retired of precarious situations successful each 4 games but it could good go a choky presumption successful the Super 8 stage. Suryakumar Yadav vs USA, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya vs Namibia, Ishan again vs Pakistan and present Shivam Dube's firepower astatine the Narendra Modi Stadium successful Ahmedabad connected Wednesday.The opening has been the biggest interest arsenic the World No.1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma is yet to people a tally successful the tournament.

It exposed Tilak Varma early, and his newfound obsession of farming onslaught without showing immoderate intent has sucked momentum from the innings. Surya's watchful commencement has further allowed opponents to use a choke successful the mediate overs, meaning the little bid does astir of the dense lifting.Ishan has been India's superior aggressor, but aft helium walked disconnected successful the 5th implicit of the innings, the Netherlands gained important power erstwhile Tilak combined with Surya successful the mediate overs.

Together the duo faced 28 deliveries and scored lone 30 runs. There was an aboriginal reprieve for the Indian skipper and the fluency was acold from perfect against an onslaught which stuck to their plans and was precise disciplined successful beforehand of a capableness crowd.The boundaries had dried up and a consciousness of desperation was creeping in, prompting an contiguous move. Tilak was backmost aft scoring 31 disconnected 27 and Surya recovered the fielder successful the heavy ending his sound astatine 34 disconnected 28 balls.

When the runs dried up, Dube, the gladiator, took matters into his ain hands and was impeccable with his changeable selection. There was a cautious effort by the absorption to premix gait but Dube was not falling successful the trap.

He seemed to beryllium speechmaking it good disconnected the manus and his attack wasn't premeditated. The shot was deed wherever it was expected to beryllium hit, and determination were nary half-measures.With six sixes and 4 boundaries, helium injected overmuch needed urgency into the innings and adjacent erstwhile Hardik was going astatine run-a-ball astatine the different end, Dube's attack kept India connected people of a large total.

The concern betwixt the 2 raced to 76 disconnected conscionable 35 balls, doing important harm power for the cautiousness exhibited by the earlier right-left brace of Surya and Tilak successful the innings.Chasing 194 runs connected a transportation that offered thing for bowlers was ever going to beryllium a daunting task for the Netherlands. They managed good against the caller shot pairing of Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh but had nary effect for Varun Chakravarthy.

The enigma spinner, India's trump paper successful the tournament, picked 3 wickets successful arsenic galore overs - 2 of those coming disconnected consecutive deliveries, arsenic the Netherlands batter looked clueless erstwhile helium unzipped his container of tricks.In their past radical game, Surya utilized arsenic galore arsenic 7 bowlers - adjacent giving an implicit to Abhishek Sharma - to guarantee everyone is warmed up for the large crippled against South Africa connected February 22. Lower-ranked teams person exposed the Indian batters' weakness connected aggregate occasions successful the past mates of weeks and the defending champions volition privation to resoluteness this earlier hitting the concern extremity of the tournament.Gerhard Erasmus, Aryan Dutt, Salman Agha, Saim Ayub and Usman Tariq person fixed capable cues for the teams acceptable to look India successful the Super 8. Aiden Markram (South Africa), Roston Chase (West Indies) and Sikandar Raza (Zimbabwe) volition beryllium eagerly waiting for Surya & Co.Brief scoresIndia 193/6 successful 20 overs (Shivam Dube 66, Suryakumar Yadav 34; Logan van Beek 3/56, Aryan Dutt 2/19)Netherlands 176/7 successful 20 overs (Bas de Leede 33, Zach Lion-Cachet 26; Varun Chakravarthy 3/14, Shivam Dube 35/2)