India, Sky high!

Being used for the second match in succession on the same evening the 22yard strip at the Sydney Cricket Ground posed myriad challenges to Indiarsquos top order Suryakumar Yadav then breezed in and batted as if on a shirtfront reducing the match against The Netherlands on Thursday to oneway traffic with an innings of the highest qualityTo completely put to shade Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both of whom struck halfcenturies on the evening is no mean accomplishment Suryakumar did so effortlessly from the time he marched out at the end of the 12th over unleashing such mayhem that The Netherlands had nowhere to hideIndia go with same playing XIHis electric 25ball halfcentury was the cornerstone around which India erected 1792 after Rohit won a second straight toss and chose to bat India signalled their intentions by going in with the same XI that edged Pakistan on Sunday and were rewarded for a dominant allround show by hitting the top of the Super 12 Group 2 standings with a second win on the bounce by the commanding margin of 56 runsKL looked out of sortsIndiarsquos innings was a strange admixture a tale of two parts KL Rahul looked totally out of sorts as he has often been since his comeback at the Asia Cup in August and Rohit was only marginally more fluent both defeated as much the slowness of the track as the predominantly offpace The Netherlands attack Rahul perished early playing all over and across a full ball from Paul van Meekeren to be adjudged leg beforemdashhe chose not to review and replays suggested the ball was missing legmdashwhile Rohit alternated between the muscular and the frustratedAlso readRohit Sharmas coach wants him to shed highrisk gameBetween bouts of exasperation he found the boundaries often enough to provide some impetus to an innings that had only produced 53 in the first nine overs against Dutch discipline with the ball and excellence in the field Kohli too took his time but Suryakumar batted like he had not a care in the world mixing customary whips to leg walking across his stumps to some peachy coverdrives that had class oozing all over themLargely a silent partner in the 73run stand with Rohit Kohli finished strongly going from 19 off 21 at one stage to 62 off 44 when the innings ended During the 95run unbroken stand Suryakumar batted in just one extraordinary gear fittingly bringing up his fifty off the last ball with a screaming six over longlegThe Netherlands hung on to finish on 123 for nine losing four for 39 in eight overs to spinners Axar Patel and R Ashwin after Bhuvneshwar Kumar had started the carnage with an opening spell of 2201 Clinical professional India propelled by the flamboyance of Suryakumar made this as onesided as you could getRohit not too happy despite scoring 53India captain Rohit Sharma was ecstatic with his teamrsquos ldquonear perfectrdquo win over The Netherlands but ldquonot too happyrdquo about his own 53run knock in the T20 World Cup here on Thursday Rohit had four hits to the fence and three maximums in his 39ball innings as India posted 1792 and then limited The Netherland to 1239 for a 56run winRohit Sharma at Sydney yesterday PicAFPldquoNot too happy with my fiftyrdquo said Rohit who was dropped by Tim Pringle in the fifth over bowled by Fred Klaassen ldquoBut whatrsquos important is getting runsmdashdoesnrsquot matter if they are good looking runs or ugly runs At the end of the day it is about keeping the confidence uprdquo Rohit said at the postmatch presentation867No of runs scored by Suryakumar in 25 T20Is this year 4128Brief scoresIndia 1792 V Kohli 62 R Sharma 53 S Yadav 51beat The Netherlands 1239 T Pringle 20 B Kumar 29 A Patel 218 R Ashwin 221 Arshdeep 237 by 56 runs