T20 World Cup 2022, Match 23: India vs Netherlands - Talking points and Who Said What?

India dominated Netherlands in the 23rd match of the T20 World Cup 2022 at the Sydney Cricket Ground with a solid all-round performance. Indian batters put up a challenging 180-run target while batting first and then bowlers bowled impressive spells to restrict the Netherlands to just 123/9 and bagged a big 56-run win.

With this win, India are now at the top of the Super 12 Group 2 table with four points and the Netherlands are at the bottom with two defeats from the opening two matches.

India won the toss again and elected to bat first but lost their star opener, KL Rahul, early. Captain Rohit Sharma and in-form batter Virat Kohli then formed a 73-run partnership for the second wicket to avoid any further collapse.

Rohit scored 53 runs before getting out in the 12th over. Then Kohli formed another big partnership of 95 runs with Suryakumar Yadav to guide India to a big total of 179/2. Kohli remained unbeaten on 62 runs while Suryakumar smashed a six on the innings' last ball to complete his fifty in 25 balls.

While defending a big target, the experienced medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar started with two maiden overs and a wicket to ensure India's big win. The Netherlands' batters struggled to forge meaningful partnerships and were eventually restricted to just 123/9 in 20 overs. For India, Bhuvneshwar emerged as the pick of all the bowlers with two wickets while conceding only nine runs in his three-over spell.

Virat Kohli continues his red-hot form:

After playing one of his career-best knocks against Pakistan in the last match, Virat continued that momentum with another unbeaten fifty. He first formed a 73-run partnership for the second wicket with Rohit and then an unbeaten 95-run partnership with Suryakumar for the third wicket. This is Kohli's 12th fifty in T20 World Cup tournaments and he is now only 27 runs behind Mahela Jayawardene's tally of 1016 runs as the overall leading run-scorer in T20 World Cups.

KL Rahul's hesitation to take DRS call:

The star Indian opener managed to score only nine runs off 12 balls before getting adjudged LBW on a van Meekeren delivery. Rahul hesitated to take the DRS call and didn't get much help from Rohit at the non-striker's end as well. He walked off the pitch in disappointment and later the replay showed that the ball was clearly missing the leg stump.

Losing captain, Scott Edwards said:

Definitely the noisiest crowd I've played in front of. It was an awesome experience. It was always going to be tricky chasing 180. Thought we bowled reasonably well, if you don't get wickets, with the batting order they've got, would've been tough to restrict. Looking forward now to our game against Pakistan.

Winning captain, Rohit Sharma said:

When you're expected to win, the pressure is a lot more. This was a near-perfect game for us. Won't say we were in a spot of bother at the start, wicket was on the slower side and we couldn't play our shots right at the start. With the ball, we were clinical. I'm not entirely happy with the way I batted, wouldn't say it was a perfect knock. Just to get some runs under my belt was good. Have to get runs, good looking or ugly looking, doesn't matter. Important to keep that confidence ticking.

Player of the Match, Suryakumar Yadav said:

Just wanted to express myself. Message was loud and clear when I went in to bat. Wanted to go at 8-10 an over. Enjoying batting with Kohli.

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