Key events
47th over: India 360-3 (Rahul 82, Shreyas 102) Can India reach 400? The Dutch giving it their all. Van Beek’s first three balls are sensible singles, but then Rahul lofts him straight, it looks big but in fact only dribbles to the rope. The next shot is an incredible bit of engineering, as Rahul chops and yet the ball flies into the stands for six.
A hundred for Shreyas Iyer!
46th over: India 346-3 (Rahul 70, Shreyas 100) Rahul slams de Leede through backward point for four. Then three gentle singles – the crowd on tenterhooks for the hundred – he collects it with a single, raises the bat, gets a hug from Rahul gulps a bottle of water. Done with style, off just 84 balls.
45th over: India 337-3 (Rahul 64, Shreyas 95) Rahul misses an attempted shimmy behind, and the next ball is a slower ball that he plays and misses. But he fetches the next, leans back and cuts for four. But seven from the over feels like a small Dutch triumph.
44th over: India 330-3 (Rahul 59, Shreyas 95) A second six for Shreyas who stands and delivers straight and up off van Meekeren. Then it is Rahul’s turn: a fly swat, for six, into a sea of excited blue shirts. A free hit from a no ball is swatted – but just for one. 17 from the over. Van Meekeren shakes his head and walks away – but actually India have a way to go to hit their highest total ever.
Fifty for KL Rahul!
43rd over: India 313-3 (Rahul 51, Shreyas 87)Rahul completes a fifth fifty of the innings – every member of the top five getting their eye in for the semi on Wednesday. Off just 40 balls – which, I think, counter-intuitively, has been the quickest of them all. . And the non-striker’s stumps are flattened again, this time by Shreyas, before he turns van Beek off his hip and it scampers away for four.
42nd over: India 304-3 (Rahul 49, Shreyas 80) Decent from de Leede: two dots, a single. Spoke too soon – another wide, then Shreyas slams a short not particularly brutish one for four.
“Hi Tanya, hope you’re well?” Hello Phillip Wainwright!
“Would you have picked LL and SC in your touring party? A lack of alternatives?
“LL, with about 100 runs and nowhere near double figures for wickets in last 10 matches, indicates he must have some dirt on Butter/Mott/Key?
“SC has been awful for longer than he’s been good, as well. (Though not peeped ar his recent stats, admittedly).
“Strange calls, especially when you factor in Malan’s treatment. “
Tricky, because I’m not sure whether anyone has been rested rather than dropped. Malan surely deserves his place. I’d probably have taken Livingstone on what he can do. Not sure about Sam Curran…
41st over: India 296-3 (Rahul 47, Shreyas 75) Pressure on the Netherlands. Rahul cuts for four, then another with a gentle turn of the wrists.
40th over: India 284-3 (Rahul 37, Shreyas 73) Bang – Shreyas flambees van Meekeren flat and fast for six – then immediately shakes his left arm, as if the vibrations have travelled down the bat handle. Out comes the physio – Shreyas takes off his helmet and we get to see his two enormous diamond earrings – but all seems ok. A super diving stop on the rope from de Leede.
Some glorious celebration kurtas (?) on show here by India.
39th over: India 274-3 (Rahul 36, Shreyas 65) An arm-wheeling van der Merwe roars in sorrow that no-one has swallowed an impossible chance, as Rahul cuts between keeper and slip. Four.
38th over: India 266-3 (Rahul 29, Shreyas 64) KL Rahul fires a single into the boot of van Meekeren, then a drunk punch for four over deep midwicket.
37th over: India 257-3 (Rahul 22, Shreyas 62) KL Rahul tucks into a full toss from van der Merwe, sweeping it for four. Six off the over, as the Dutch, and the crowd, wait for the all-out-attack of the final ten.
Ali on Rob Key, who puts his hand up and says mea culpa.
36th over: India 251-3 (Rahul 17, Shreyas 61) The non striker’s stumps are broken for the third time in the day, this time by Rahul’s straight drive. Another wide from de Leede, but also three dots. Shreyas dances wide of leg stump and lofts over extra cover for four.
35th over: India 244-3 (Rahul 16, Shreyas 56) A wristy four from Rahul.
Fifty for Shreyas
34th over: India 235-3 (Rahul 10, Shreyas 54) Shreyas, with military moustache, pulls de Leede, navel level, dismissively to the boundary boards. Rahul drives , with high elbow for single. And then another four, sent, like a morning kiss, through extra cover, for his fifty – off 48 balls. “Temperament,” is what Rahul Dravid apparently said was Shreyas’ USP.
33rd over: India 224-3 (Rahul 9, Shreyas 44) A pocketful of singles off Ackermann, and they take DRINKS.
32nd over: India 219-3 (Rahul 7, Shreyas 41) Better from de Leede, who pushes his long fringe out of his eyes. Think a young, blond, Tim Burgess. Just two from the over. In the dug out, Kohli wrings out his hands.
31st over: India 217-3 (Rahul 6, Shreyas 40) A nearly-but-not-quite four for Shreyas over the head of midwicket.
30th over: India 211-3 (Rahul 5, Shreyas 35) de Leede starts with a couple of wides, his radar slightly awry today. Serves up another juicily on leg stump and KL Rahul pulls for four, past a sprawling fielder.
“Happy Diwali,” and to you Krishnamoorthy.
”Let me clear up your confusion on Dravid wearing orange
The ruling party , the right wing nationalistic BJP leaves no opportunity to appropriate every popular thing . The training jerseys in orange is one such move.”
”You may like to look up the name if the stadium where the final will be hosted.” Ah, the Narendra Modi stadium. This is one habit I am happy the UK has not – yet – taken up.
29th over: India 200-3 (Rahul 0, Shreyas 31) Kohli stares at the broken stumps in disbelief, fumes at the blameless soil, before examining his bat and stalking away. Around the ground, people get up, stretch, scratch.
WICKET! Kohli b van der Merwe 51 (India 200-3)
From nowhere! Kohli, leans back to cut, misses, and the ball pings back the top of off stump. Silence drops like a winter night.
Fifty for Virat Kohli
28th over: India 198-2 (Kohli 50, Shreyas 30) Four, as Shreyas pulls van Meekeren, forward of square to the rope. And, finally, the Virat fifty as he pulls van Meekeren and takes the single. Pumps the bat briefly, grins, bumps gloves. 53 balls.
Apparently there are huge numbers of Virat Kohli cut-outs at the ground today. I can’t find any picures, but here are cut outs from Eden Gardens.
27th over: India 190-2 (Kohli 48, Shreyas 24) Van der Merwe, totters in, left arm over. Kohli content to pick the gaps and take the singles. An uncharacteristic misfield, a sprawling dive-over at short third man, brings two more runs to Shreyas. The crowd chant Koli’s name, as he faces the last ball on 48. No run, and he grins.
26th over: India 184-2 (Kohli 46, Shreyas 20) Shreyas swings at van Meekeren and misses. A single brings up the fifty partnership off 48 balls, another jogged single to make a pair. Then Shreyas tees off, four skewed up and over wide mid off. The batters are brought towels and drinks.
25th over: India 178-2 (Kohli 45, Shreyas 15) Nearly a run-out, as Shreyas drops his bat in the sprint for the second run. If de Leede’s throw had been flatter – he’d have on his way home. Carefully done by Dutt – just five from the over.
24th over: India 173-2 (Kohli 44, Shreyas 11) Kohli again, pulling, through the gap for four. Eye now fully in.
23rd over: India 165-2 (Kohli 37, Shreyas 10) Wow, pin-point accuracy from Kohli, threading a needle, a back foot running stitch through cover off Dutt. Delicious.
22nd over: India 158-2 (Kohli 31, Shreyas 9) Someone put coal in the Kohli engine – a bottom handed welly over mid on, followed immediately by a stylish four.
21st over: India 147-2 (Kohli 20, Shreyas 9) The Kohli swagger, as he kneels to sweep, sweetly, for four. But, they say on comms, the Dutch have done well as he is “forced to play a shot he doesn’t usually play.”
A parochial English county cricket/Thomas the tank engine tweet, but I always hated Henry being bricked up in the tunnel. And poor, ignored, Sam Hain.
20th over: India 140-2 (Kohli 14, Shreyas 8) de Leede continues. Shreyas picks up his first boundary through mid on. Shreyas and Kohli grin in the middle
19th over: India 133-2 (Kohli 13, Shreyas 3) In the crowd, the de Leede family sits en masse. Dutt returns, and has a much better time now that Rohit and Gill are gone. Beats the outside edge of Shreyas’ bat. Then Kohli’s, who pulls his head back in frustration and roars.
18th over: India 130-2 (Kohli 12, Shreyas 1) Virat gets his first boundary with a wristy flick – the sort of shot that sells Christmas aftershave. A wide, a single, then the wicket as a slightly-out-of-timing Rohit gets it wrong.
