It’s been a while since India’s opener, Rohit Sharma, has been scoring runs against teams like UAE and Ireland, but has failed to do so against big teams like Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies, in the league stages.
During the second quarterfinal match of the 2015 World Cup, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on Saturday, Rohit’s 137 may have been scored against a relatively lesser known team, like Bangladesh. But the challenges of this game were much bigger.
Despite getting a decent head-start, India was in a spot after losing two quick wickets. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli played an over-ambitious drive against Bangla pacer Rubel Hossain, and perished. Even Ajinkya Rahane didn’t stay long.
The stage was set for Suresh Raina to be the knight India needed. Raina played a good supporting role to Rohit Sharma. The latter showed great presence of mind after the fall of three wickets within the 28th over of the Indian innings.
The score, at that stage, was 115, but from there, both Rohit and Raina made the most of Bangladesh’s bowling. They played with authority and showed great signs of maturity. Raina took India to 237 for four, before bowing out in the 44th over, leaving Rohit to bat on.
Rohit and Raina shared an important partnership of 122 from 15.5 overs. They also kept a very healthy run-rate of 7.7, sealing the match in India’s favour. Towards the end of the innings, after Rohit and Indian captain MS Dhoni got out, Ravindra Jadeja made a helpful 23 to get India past the 300-run mark.
Rohit’s superb touch with the bat was heartening. India’s batting unit need to click two more times in this World Cup to go all the way, and in this pursuit Rohit will have to score big against the big teams!
