The Indian cricket team has maintained their record of being unbeaten in the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup 2023 as they defeated the South African team by a big margin of 243 runs in the match which was played yesterday at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
What made this win more special was the fact that Virat Kohli smashed his 49th ODI ton on his birthday and equaled the record of legendary former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Batting first, the Indian team put up a total of 326/5 on the scoreboard with the help of brilliant knocks of Virat Kohli (101 runs not out) and Shreyas Iyer (77 runs). In response, South Africa got all out at the score of 83 runs in 28 overs and Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers for India as he dismissed 5 Proteas batters.
While speaking in the post-match press conference, Ravindra Jadeja praised Virat Kohli as he said, “I think this will be very special for Virat himself. It was a very tough pitch and at times, it seemed that even 260-270 looked par. He rotated the strike and at stage when runs dried up and their spinners were bowling well, to rotate strike and remain not out while taking score beyond 300, it takes effort.”
Jadeja further said, “When they bowled, there was more help from the track, there was more turn on offer and the wicket didn’t have bounce also. If you ask for my opinion, the pitch became easier for batting in the evening compared to afternoon, may be not easy but okay for batting. But in the afternoon, it was a slow turner. You couldn’t hit big shots. Credit how Virat handled their spinners. We always had an idea that Kolkata is a low bounce track that aids spinners. We knew the wicket would play slow.”
India has already made it to the semi-finals and hopefully they will play in the same manner in the knockouts as well.
