Indian cricketers including captain Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma shared their “priceless” experiences with the Scotland team following their eight-wicket win in the Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup here.
Besides Kohli and Rohit, other Indian stars like Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin were also seen interacting with the Scottish players in their dressing room after the match on Friday night.
“Huge respect to @imVkohli and co. for taking the time,” Cricket Scotland tweeted.
“Priceless,” it wrote along with pictures of the interaction.
India put up an all-round effort to pulverise Scotland and keep their semifinal prospects alive.
Priceless. pic.twitter.com/fBEz6Gp5fL
— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) November 5, 2021
The entire match lasted a mere 24.1 overs as India skittled Scotland for 85 in 17.4 overs and then needed only 6.3 overs to knock off the runs.
The dominating win took India’s net run-rate to +1.619, which is now best among all six teams, even better than top-placed Pakistan (+1.065).
To surpass Afghanistan’s current net run-rate of +1.481, India needed to score the required runs in 7.1 overs and KL Rahul (50 off 19 balls) and Rohit Sharma (30 off 16 balls) added 70 in five overs to make sure that they achieve it in style.
Scotland had won all their three matches in Group B to qualify for Super 12. But they crashed out after losing all their last four matches.
Huge respect to @imVkohli and co. for taking the time 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/kdFygnQcqj
— Cricket Scotland (@CricketScotland) November 5, 2021
The gulf between India and Scotland teams was pretty evident in almost every department be it batting or bowling. However, it would be a gross injustice to weigh upon the outcome of the match only on cricketing parlance as Cricket Scotland’s yearly revenue is less than what the BCCI earns in one match.
Earlier, at the end of India vs Scotland match, the Scottish players gathered around India opener KL Rahul for a chat. Only minutes ago, the 29-year-old had bludgeoned an 18-ball half-century. Rahul shared his experience of playing at the top level against some of the best in the business.
Coming back to the game, Chasing 86, India got off to a blistering start as the openers Rohit-Rahul registered the fastest team fifty of the ongoing T20 World Cup. India needed to chase 86 runs in 7.1 overs to better go ahead of Afghanistan’s net-run rate but the Kohli-led side did the needful in 6.3 overs.
“We spoke about the 8-10 over bracket before the start, didn’t want to really go too hard because if you lose wickets then an extra 20 balls could cost. We thought that if we play naturally, runs will come quickly,” said Kohli after the win over Scotland.