Rohit Sharma played an outstanding innings of 131 runs from 84 balls as a captain in the CWC2023 match, leading India to a comfortable victory.
Rohit Sharma architected a blasting captain knock with 5-sixes and 16-fours, India successfully chased down the target in just 35 overs while losing only two wickets.
Afghanistan also performed well, setting a target of 272 runs in 50 overs. Hashmatullah played a crucial role, scoring 80 runs off 88 balls, and he formed a strong partnership with Azmatullah, who contributed 62 runs from 69 balls.
Jasprit Bumrah had a remarkable day with the ball, taking four key wickets while conceding only 39 runs in his 10-over spell.
Following the match, both captains Rohit Sharma and Hashmatullah addressed the media in a post-match press conference. Here are excerpts from their statements:
Winning captain and player of the match Rohit Sharma:
It was a good win for us, ot is very important to get momentum at the start. You will be put under pressure, there will be a spell from the opposition at some point and we’ll have to absorb it.
We’ve got players with different skillsets bringing different attributes which is good for the team. We’ve got batters who play freely and fearlessly and when you have all-round players, things take care of themselves.
On that record-breaking innings Rohit said:
It was a good pitch to bat on and I backed myself to play my natural game. I knew that the wicket would get easier once I’d got my eye in…
It is special to get a World Cup hundred and I’m very happy but I don’t want to think about records too much because there’s a long way to go and I don’t want to lose my focus. I just want to make it count on days like this… some of my play is premeditated but you can’t just go out and play big shots, sometimes, you go by instinct. It’s often a mixture of both.
I know it’s my responsibility to give the team a good start and put the team in a good position as much as possible. It’s something I’ve done for a while and love doing, it looks good when it works out! It doesn’t always come off but I want to back myself to keep trying and put pressure on the opposition.
Losing captain Hashmatullah Shahidi speaks:
We had above 300 as a target in mind but unfortunately we lost back-to-back wickets in the middle. Our thinking at the toss was that it was a good pitch and we wanted to put up big runs. We hope to work on the issues and come back positively and we are looking forward to the seven more games.
