Kohli continued, becoming the third Indian batter to pass 11,000 ODI runs. "I'm enjoying my cricket (and) coming off a great IPL campaign." "It's just the space I'm in right now - it's a very good phase in my life," he said. Sharma attributed his run of form to the emotional high following the birth of a baby daughter. He seemed ready to really unleash when he needlessly paddled a ball from Hasan Ali to Wahab Riaz at short fine leg in the 38th over. Sharma set the tone with his second century of the tournament, sharing partnerships of 136 with KL Rahul (57) for the first wicket and 98 with Kohli. Kohli's single to get off the mark was greeted by "Kohli-Kohli-Kohli" chants from the predominantly pro-India crowd. This was no different, with a 1 billion-plus TV audience and an almost football-like atmosphere at the ground. There's always extra significance when the nuclear-armed neighboring countries meet at ICC tournaments because India and Pakistan play cricket so infrequently in bilateral series. Seats were in excessively high demand, after all, with the International Cricket Council reporting more than 800,000 ticket applications for the game. The conditions didn't dampen the enthusiasm of a predominantly pro-India crowd that filled the 162-year-old venue to its 23,500 capacity. All the outside talk will keep happening - for us it's just make sure we get the job done." Our focus is to make sure we accomplish that mission. "For us it's pretty simple, we're here to win the game, not look at the opposition," he said. Sharma said the key was not getting caught up in the hype of any rivalry between the countries and the extra attention it brings. Pakistan finished 212-6, and India extend its unbeaten run to four games to start the tournament. Set a revised target of 302 from 40 overs, the last 30-odd balls were a non-event. It just prolonged the inevitable - there was no chance of sharing the points because both teams had batted more than 20 overs. Pakistan had slumped to 166-6 by 35th over when rain intervened again.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |