Half-centuries from Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul helped India reach their target with 28 balls to spare to give departing head coach Ravi Shastri a winning send-off.
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Team India openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma smashed half-centuries on Monday, to mark a positive end to the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri era. Rahul and Rohit made their presence felt to help the Indian team thrash Namibia by a margin of nine wickets, having been handed a target of 133 runs. The two teams were battling it out in the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup, where Team India failed to make it to the semi-finals. Rahul smashed 54 runs from 36 deliveries in an innings comprising of four boundaries and two sixes. Rohit accumulated 56 runs from 37 balls with the knock including seven fours and two maximums. Jan Frylinck was the pick of the bowlers for Namibia, accounting for a dismissal.
Spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja delivered a fantastic performance to help restrict Namibia to a total of 132 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Ashwin and Jadeja accounted for three dismissals apiece, with pacer Jasprit Bumrah chipping in with two wickets. David Wiese was the top run-getter for Namibia, accumulating 26 runs from 25 deliveries, with the innings comprising of two boundaries.
Jadeja was named as the Player of the Match following his heroics.
“As a bowler I enjoyed the game, the ball was dry and that is always good for a spinner. Some turned and some didn’t so the batsman had to keep guessing. I’ve been playing with Ashwin for 10 years, he’s played well in the IPL with the white ball, and he’s brought that here. Virat has been a wonderful captain, and I’ve played with him for 10-12 years. He is always positive and aggressive and that’s what you want as a player. Bharat Arun, Mr. Sridhar, and Shastri bhai were really good to support us, and whoever comes next, we’ll look to continue the momentum,” said the all-rounder.
Team India skipper Virat Kohli admitted that he was relieved after leaving T20I captaincy.
“Relief firstly (on leaving T20I captaincy). It’s been a honor but things need to be kept at the right perspective. I felt this was the right time to manage my workload. It’s been six or seven years of heavy workload and there is a lot of pressure. The guys have been fantastic, I know we haven’t got the results here but we have played some really good cricket. The guys have really made my work easier. The way we played the last three games, it’s a game of margins – T20 cricket these days. Two overs of attacking cricket at the top is what we were missing in the first two games. As I said, we weren’t brave enough in those games and in the group we were in, it was tough,” said Kohli as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“A big thank you to all those guys (Ravi Shastri and his support staff). They have done a great job over the years, creating such a wonderful environment for the players. People loved to get back to the atmosphere. They have done a really great job. That (his aggression) is never going to change. The day it does, I’ll stop playing cricket. Even before I became captain, I have always loved to contribute in some way or the other. Surya didn’t get much gametime in this World Cup, so I thought it will be a nice memory to take back. That was the idea (behind not batting himself),” he added.
