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India defeated Sri Lanka by a massive 302 runs on
Thursday in Mumbai, making history as the first team to advance to the ODI
World Cup semi-finals, 25 days after the team’s debut.
“I’m very happy knowing we have officially
qualified for the semi-finals, it’s been a good effort from the entire
squad,” India captain Rohit Sharma said after India notched up their
seventh win in seven games. “When we started off in Chennai, this was the
first goal for us, to qualify first and then obviously, the semis and the
final.
“But all in all, I thought how we approached the
seven games has been quite clinical. Everybody put in the effort. We wanted
individuals to stand up and a lot of individuals towards these seven games put
their hands up and stood up.”
Players who are performing at their best, according to
Rohit, bode well for the squad in the final stages of the competition. He was
especially impressed by players like Mohammed Siraj, who shocked Sri Lanka with
three wickets up front, and Shreyas Iyer, who had a few low scores going into
the game but smashed a rapid 82 to get the team to 357. In less than 20 overs,
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah contributed to Sri Lanka’s defeat by bowling
them out for 55 runs.
“Shreyas, as far as I know him, is a very strong
lad, strong in his mind, and today, as you saw… he did what he is known for.
And that’s what we expect from him; to take on the opposition and the
bowlers,” Rohit said. “The couple of sixes he hit in his innings
showed that he is there to take on that challenge in front of him. He’s been
working very hard on his game and today we saw what he’s capable of.
“As for Siraj, he’s a quality bowler and if he
does that, it’s quite a big difference for us with the new ball. He can swing
the ball, get the ball to get back in, he’s got a lot of skills when he is
operating with the new ball.”