It was not a 190 pitch: Rohit Sharma gushes after Indian bowlers’ exceptional show

NEW DELHI: Indian captain Rohit Sharma praised his bowlers on Saturday for limiting Pakistan to a mere 191 runs on a pitch that offered little assistance to bowlers during their highly anticipated World Cup match.In this marquee encounter, five Indian bowlers each claimed two wickets, resulting in Pakistan being dismissed in just 42.5 overs. India successfully chased down the target in the 31st over.

Rohit expressed his satisfaction with the bowlers, acknowledging that they had set the stage for India’s eighth consecutive victory over Pakistan in ODI World Cups.

“The bowlers were the ones who set the game up for us. I don’t think it was a 190 kind of pitch. At one stage, we were looking at 280,” said Rohit during the post-match presentation.”The way they (bowlers) showed grit says a lot. That is something we pride ourselves in. Whoever gets the ball does the job for the team,” said Rohit.

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“We’ve got six individuals who can do the job with the ball. My job as a captain is important there as well. It’s to read the conditions and figure out who’s the right guy to do the job,” he added.The skipper also praised his batters who have been firing on all cylinders.”It’s only because the guys – before entering the World Cup – they got a lot of runs. We were very clear (about) what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to be in two minds about who’s going to bat where.”However, Rohit said it would be important to keep the momentum going and not get carried away.”All in all, it’s looking good. I want to keep my fingers crossed, and don’t want to get too excited. I don’t want to get too low as well. We want to stay balanced, keep calm and keep moving forward.”Every opposition we come up against is all quality. You have to play well on that particular day, and that’s what we’re looking at.”The collapse cost us: BabarPakistan skipper Babar Azam blamed the batting collapse for his side’s flop show.The Men in Green had a good start and were 155 for 2 until the 30th over before losing the remaining eight wickets for just 36 runs.”We started well. We just planned to play normal cricket and build partnerships. Suddenly, there was a collapse, and we could not finish well. The way we started, our target was 280-290, but the collapse cost us. The total was not good.”Babar also credited Rohit for his glorious knock.”We are not up to the mark with the new ball. Rohit played an outstanding innings. We just tried to take wickets, but that didn’t happen,” he signed off.(With PTI Inputs)