Shreyas Iyer and Lokesh Rahul scored attacking hundreds to help India make it nine wins in nine games with a 160-run victory over the Netherlands in the final group-stage match at the Cricket World Cup.
Iyer hit his first World Cup century, scoring 128 not out off 94 balls, while Rahul smashed the fastest Indian hundred at a World Cup, as the hosts piled on the runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The pair put on 208 runs off 21 overs for the fourth wicket. Rahul scored 100 off 62 balls, beating Rohit Sharma’s 63-ball record against Afghanistan in Delhi earlier in this tournament.
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In all, the two-time champions had five batters scoring 50-plus in their innings, and finished at 4-410, the fifth highest World Cup total. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gil put on 100 for the first wicket. Virat Kohli was out for 51 but will likely remember this match for claiming his first ODI wicket in almost a decade.
Jasprit Bumrah (2-33) and Mohammed Siraj (2-29) shared four wickets as the Dutch were dismissed for 250 in 47.5 overs.
India advanced to the semi-finals with a perfect 18 points from nine wins.
It will play fourth-place New Zealand in the first semi-final at Mumbai on Wednesday. Second-place South Africa will play third-place Australia in the second semi-final at Kolkata the following day.
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The Netherlands finished 10th in the standings, despite its two upset wins against South Africa and Bangladesh.
India scored 126 runs for one wicket in the final 10 overs to finish with the tournament’s second-highest total.
It was also India’s second-highest total in World Cups after 5-413 against Bermuda in 2007.
In reply, Netherlands gave a good account but its batting lacked the firepower needed to seriously challenge India’s score.
Its biggest highlight was when Kohli came on to bowl and dismissed Scott Edwards for 17, caught behind down leg side. It was Kohli’s first ODI wicket since January 2014.
India had nine different bowlers on the night, with Gill and Suryakumar Yadav also turning their arms over. In all, the four part-timers bowled 7.5 overs for 2-48. Kohli finished with 1-13 from three overs.
“Today we had nine (bowling) options and it is important to have (them),” Sharma said.
“This was the game where we could have tried certain things. The seamers bowled those wide yorkers when it was not needed, but we wanted to do that. As a bowling unit, we wanted to try doing something different and see what we can achieve.”
India was unchanged from its previous game against South Africa in Kolkata, which it won by a huge 243 runs.
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