Team India got their T20 World Cup campaign off to an ideal start at New York’s Nassau County International Stadium on Wednesday with an eight-wicket victory over Ireland and moving to the top of Group A as a result.
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It was an extension of the Men in Blue’s dominant performance against Bangladesh in their sole warm-up game before the tournament as India bundled the Irishmen out for 96 after opting to bat. Hardik Pandya was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/27 and Jasprit Bumrah collecting 2/6 that earned him the Player of the Match award as Ireland failed to reach 100 after batting 16 overs.
India would then chase down the 97-run target with eight wickets and nearly as many overs to spare. This despite the difficult New York wicket posing problems for Indian batters, with Virat Kohli getting dismissed for 1 and skipper Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant copping painful blows on their body. Rohit had to retire hurt shortly after completing a 36-ball fifty.
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Pant stuck around till the end, and had the honour of hitting the winning six in his first international match since December 2022. By winning the match with 46 deliveries to spare, India gave their Net Run Rate (NRR) a massive boost, sitting at the top of the Group A standings with an NRR of +3.065.
There were, of course, a number of milestones achieved along the way, which we take a more detailed look at below:
— Rohit Sharma became the most successful T20I skipper for India after their victory over Ireland. Rohit has now led India to victory in 42 out of the 55 T20Is he has played as captain, going past MS Dhoni who had captained India in 72 T20Is of which India won 41.
— Rohit also brought up a batting milestone during his knock of 52 off 37 balls, become only the second Indian after Virat Kohli to go past 4,000 runs in T20Is. Kohli and Rohit are the two leading run-scorers in T20Is with 4,038 and 4,026 runs respectively.
— This is only the third time Indian pacers have collected eight or more wickets in a T20I match. India had collected 9 against Pakistan in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, followed by 8 against the same opponents in the 2022 edition.
— India maintained their unbeaten run against Ireland, having now won eight out of nine matches against them with one fixture getting rained off.
