Cuttack, Feb 9 After bouncing back into form in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy by hitting his 32nd ODI century in the four-wicket win over England at the Barabati Stadium, India skipper Rohit Sharma said his masterly 119 came due to him breaking down his batting approach into pieces in a successful chase of 305.
Rohit’s masterly 119 off 90 balls was laced with 12 fours and seven sixes, along with Shubman Gill’s 60 and handy knocks from Shreyas Iyer (44) and Axar Patel (41 not out) helped India chase down 305 with 33 balls remaining and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
“It was good and really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. Important game with the series on the line but I broke it down to pieces about how I wanted to bat. Longer than T20s and shorter than Tests and I wanted to break it down. I wanted to bat as deep as possible and that was my focus.
“Looking at the pitch - when you play on black soil, it tends to skid on a bit and you have to show the full face of the bat initially. Then they bowled into the body and kept it on the stumps and that's where I prepared my plan and tried to access the gaps,” said Rohit, who got Player of the Match award, in the post-game presentation ceremony.
Before this match in Cuttack, doubts had increased over Rohit’s lean run and his preparedness with the bat for the Champions Trophy happening later this month. But getting his fifty in just 30 balls and reaching his century in just 76 balls blew away all those doubts in blistering fashion. Rohit also acknowledged the support he got from Gill and Iyer while stitching partnerships of 136 and 70 respectively.
“Got very good support from Gill and Shreyas as well. Enjoy batting with Gill. Very classy player and doesn't seem to get overawed by the situation and the numbers are there as well, if I'm not wrong, for Gill,” he added.
With Ravindra Jadeja shining again with 3-35 and Varun Chakravarthy getting 1-54 on debut, Rohit stressed on importance of middle overs bowling keeping the opposition batters in check.
“The middle overs are quite important and that's where the game can go either side. If you squeeze the middle overs, you need not worry much about the death. The middle overs is very crucial and even in Nagpur, we squeezed them and got wickets. When you keep taking wickets, the run-scoring is not easy."
With the final game in Ahmedabad becoming a dead rubber, Rohit stated India will stick to its goal of improving as a side in all facets.
“We want to keep getting better as well. Nothing specific we want to work on but overall we want to keep getting better as a player and team. That is what we want to do. As long as guys are clear about what they are supposed to do, if they keep doing that not much to think about,” he added.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor