KL Rahul’s pillaging hundred, the quickest by an Indian in World Cup, and Shreyas Iyer’s doubts-allaying 128 lit up the Diwali day as India mowed down Netherlands by 160 runs in Bengaluru on Sunday, registering their ninth consecutive victory within the showpiece. It helped India end their league engagements with 18 factors, and now they’ll transfer to Mumbai for the high-stakes semi-final conflict in opposition to New Zealand on Wednesday. Rahul’s blitz and Iyer’s posh unbeaten 94-ball hundred mixed nicely 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 whole.

Thus, India turned the third group on this match to submit 400 after South Africa and New Zealand. The Indian bowlers didn’t must sweat a lot to skittle the Dutch for 250 as even Kohli and Rohit, who took the ultimate scalp, discovered themselves among the many wicket-takers.

The Indian innings was dotted by two huge stands that brilliantly exhibited aggressive batsmanship, so diligently adopted by the hosts all through this occasion.

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

The tons by Iyer and Rahul will delight the Indian administration no finish forward of the knockouts by way of middle-order batters’ productiveness.

Nevertheless, Iyer’s knock will please the thinktank by that bit extra. There was chatter across the right-hander’s susceptibility in opposition to short-pitched balls and he cleared it by a point right here.

The Netherland pacers did strive that technique in opposition to Iyer however the Mumbaikar was proper as much as the duty, enjoying the pulls with consolation.

He made 82 runs on the on-side throughout his innings and 35 runs got here off pulls or horizontal-batted photographs. It may need stuffed him additionally with some stage of confidence forward of the crunch match in opposition to the Kiwis.

However his innings was not nearly clearing the doubts as he scientifically broke down the Dutch bowling unit. In reality, Iyer’ was the form of ODI innings that one can embody in teaching archives as a mannequin for budding cricketers.

The largest spotlight of Iyer’s batting is his potential to keep away from dangers – the attention of bowlers and areas to focus on to maintain the run-flow regular. It was on full view on the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Often a advantageous participant of spin, Iyer does have a weak spot in opposition to the sluggish left-armers, evidenced by a lowered strike-rate of 90 in opposition to that sort as in comparison with different exponents of sluggish bowling.

In keeping with that, he performed out Roelof van der Merwe for singles and twos whereas concentrating on offie Aryan Dutt and pacers Paul van Meekeren and Logan van Beek.

Van Meekeren felt the warmth particularly as Iyer lofted him for 2 80m sixes over long-on and canopy because the Dutch pacer gave an excessive amount of width to free his fingers.

They weren’t manufactured photographs however the balls have been begging to be hit, and Iyer simply obliged.

Quickly, he notched up his hundred with a single to mid-off off pacer Bas de Leede, and it took him simply 84 balls.

Rahul, actually, began fairly steadily, and targeted extra on giving strike to the in-touch Iyer.

The primary 30 balls he confronted produced 26 runs, however as soon as he determined to carve a spot for himself within the partnership the following 33 balls noticed Rahul pummelling 76 runs.

The Bengaluru man unbundled a few of these photographs that make his batting a fascinating view. Iyer most well-liked the on-side extra to get his runs, however Rahul’s shot-making touched all components of the bottom.

Whereas he made 58 runs on the leg-side, 44 runs got here by the off. It’s robust to bowl to Rahul when is on the button and the Netherlands bowlers, particularly Meekeren and De Leede, felt the warmth.

The signature swat-flick six off Van Meekeren over mid-wicket drew wows from the vacation crowd, whereas a slice-cut off Van Beek over deep backward level was all about instantaneous innovation.

The 31-year-old quickly introduced up his seventh one-day hundred in vivid model too – smashing two successive sixes off pacer De Leede over the mid-wicket area, and all he took was simply 62 balls.

With that hundred, Rahul overcame Rohit’s World Cup report of 63-ball ton which the latter set in the course of the match in opposition to Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, the marauding begin on the prime given by Rohit and Gill as soon as India batted by alternative was simply as necessary.

Gill did the early working for India on a Chinnaswamy pitch that provided a touch of bounce, producing his nearly nil-follow by pulls and different vary of photographs predominantly on the leg-side.

After a barely sedate begin, Rohit additionally slipped into overdrive to punish the Netherlands bowlers.

However the ambition to speed up led to the downfall of each of them, giving catches to the deep. However Kohli and Iyer added 71 runs off 66 balls to maintain India chugging.

Simply as Kohli appeared primed for that much-anticipated fiftieth ODI hundred, Van der Merwe castled him with a skidder that rushed below his downcoming bat.

Nevertheless, later Kohli had a sugary second when he received the wicket of Dutch captain Scott Edwards, caught down the leg by Rahul behind the stumps, sending the spectators right into a delirium.

Even Gill and Suryakumar Yadav additionally turned their arms for a few overs giving the proceedings a fin-de-siecle contact because the hosts used 9 bowlers.

The Netherlands’ chase had nothing to jot down dwelling about, aside from a brisk fifty by Teja Nidamanuru (54 off 39 balls) as they unravelled step by step.

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)