India remain in contention to reach the Men’s T20 World Cup semi-finals after brutally thrashing Scotland by eight wickets in Dubai.

Requiring a big margin of victory, India dismissed Scotland for just 85 off 17.4 overs, with the superb Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja both taking 3-15.

KL Rahul clattered 50 off 18 balls and Rohit Sharma hit 30 off 16 as India reached 89-2 in just 6.3 overs.

This crushing win crucially takes India’s net run-rate, which determines who progresses if multiple teams finish equal on the same points, above both New Zealand’s and Afghanistan’s in Group 2.

New Zealand, who beat Namibia earlier on Friday, are two points above India and Afghanistan, so will progress if they beat Afghanistan on Sunday and join leaders Pakistan in the semi-finals.

But if the Black Caps slip up, India could reach the final four with victory over Namibia on Monday.

Brilliant bowling, brutal batting

India finally showed their true batting pedigree in their crushing win over Afghanistan and here the bowlers fully exhibited their threat.

Fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Shami struck early, creating pressure that slow left-armer Jadeja beautifully exploited by bowling Richie Berrington for a duck and trapping Matthew Cross lbw to leave Scotland 29-4 after seven overs.

Scotland scrapped to 81-6 after 16 overs, only to then lose three wickets in as many balls.

Calum MacLeod and Alasdair Evans were bowled by searing Shami deliveries either side of a farcical run out of Safyaan Sharif, before Mark Watt was cleaned up by Bumrah, who is now India’s leading wicket-taker in men’s T20 internationals with 64.

Rahul and Rohit then let loose a stunning onslaught, trying to hit every ball for four or six and often succeeding.

Rohit was trapped lbw by Brad Wheal and Rahul hit the fastest 50 of the tournament so far before he was caught off Watt, with Suryakumar Yadav sealing victory with a straight six.

Opening defeats by Pakistan and New Zealand could well yet ensure India, one of the pre-tournament favourites, fail to reach the semi-finals but their response has been impressive.

Yet it has perhaps also taken them until this match to get the balance of their side right.

This was the first time spinners Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy have all played together in the tournament and their control, partnered with Shami and Bumrah’s pace and the option of all-rounder Hardik Pandya, feels like the bowling unit India should have selected from the start.

How is net run-rate calculated?

Run-rate is the average number of runs scored per over by a team in their entire innings - so, for example, a score of 160 off 20 overs equals eight runs per over.

Net run-rate is calculated by subtracting the opposition’s run-rate from the other team’s run-rate.

The winning side will therefore have a positive net run-rate, and the losers a negative net run-rate.

In a tournament, net run-rate is worked out by taking the average runs per over scored by that team in each game and subtracting the average runs per over scored against them in each game.

If a team is bowled out inside their allotted overs, their run-rate is calculated by dividing the runs by the maximum overs they could have batted - 20 overs in the case of this tournament.

‘If we play like this no-one can beat us’ - what they said

India spinner Ravindra Jadeja: “We knew we had to win with a big margin to improve our net run-rate so we gave 100% and did what we had to.

“If we play like this no-one can beat us. We have to play like this in the T20 format.”

Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer: “A tough day at the office, we were outclassed in every department. But the only way we’ll improve is going through games like that and seeing it head on.”

India captain Virat Kohli: “It was a dominant performance and something we were striving to do again - we’re glad to be back in our mojo.

“We spoke about 100-120 maximum but we restricted them to a total that allowed us to leapfrog everyone else [on net run-rate].”

Source: BBC
-Agencies