Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa reckons it was a cakewalk win for India as they thumped Pakistan by seven wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Saturday. India dominated Pakistan in all three departments of the game and it was just one-way traffic.
After putting Pakistan into bat, the hosts were able to bundle out the visitors for only 191 runs on the board. Pakistan was going well at 155-2 but they lost the remaining eight wickets for only 36 runs in a span of 13 overs.
Babar Azam scored 50 whereas Rizwan scored 49 and the duo added 81 runs but the rest of Pakistan’s middle-order batters could not show any fight.
India came up with a collective bowling display with Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj, and Ravindra Jadeja bagging two wickets apiece.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was in a mood as he took an aggressive approach. The Indian skipper was severe on anything short and put on an exhibition to score a scintillating knock of 63-ball 86. Moreover, Shreyas Iyer scored 53 runs, which must have added a shot in his arm.
“I’d say it was a walk in the park. It was an easy win for India. Just the way Rohit and Shubman started the innings for India, they just dictated terms. It was incredible to watch Rohit bat. He is such a difficult player to stop when he is in good form and it was just the kind of start that India wanted,” said Uthappa while speaking to India Today.
“Shreyas Iyer batted well, Virat Kohli as well. Just all the boxes ticked and a convincing win, which takes India to a very formidable position in the points table right now which is good for India,” Uthappa added.
India also moved to the top of the points table with three wins in as many games and has an impressive Net Run Rate of +1.821. Uthappa added points are more important than NRR in the standings.
“Ideally you would want to get to the back end of the tournament just based on the points total itself. So stacking up the points is more important than net run-rate. The way Rohit played it showed that India has also got the net run-rate covered in this game. We covered the net run-rate and also gave the players the opportunity to get some match practice,” said Uthappa.
India will next take on Bangladesh at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Thursday.
