Watch: Virat Kohli was bowled by Roelof van der Merwe soon after crossing his 71st ODI fifty in the India-Netherlands clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today (November 12).
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India chose to bat first on a sunny Bengaluru afternoon against Netherlands. Going in unchanged despite the game being a dead-rubber as far as the points table is concerned, India started off in typically aggressive fashion.
Shubman Gill hit the first six of the game on the last ball of the third over off Aryan Dutt. Rohit Sharma then joined in the party as well as both openers feasted on anything even slightly off the mark by the Dutch bowlers.
The first five overs brought 37 runs, the next five brought as many as 54 with India ending the first powerplay at 91-0. Gill reached his half-century off just 30 balls in the 12th over, but perished four balls later as he top-edged a pull shot off Paul van Meekeren.
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Virat Kohli came to the crease with India’s score reading 100-1 from 11.5 overs. Netherlands were tight with their plans and execution as Kohli found it tough to get going initially. Batting on five off ten balls, he tried to force a length ball from Bas de Leede over mid-off and almost ended up giving him a catch.
Following that, however, Kohli found his rhythm. From 12 off 20 balls, he went to 38 off 40 in a phase that even saw him bring out a rare sweep shot off Dutt. On the last ball of the 28th over, Kohli took a single of van Meekeren to reach his 71st ODI fifty, raising hopes of reaching his 50th ODI ton in the process.
It wasn’t to be though, as a back of length ball from van der Merwe skid straight through and castle his off stump as Kohli looked to back away to cut, ending his innings at 51 off 56 balls, with India’s score reading 200-3.
Watch Roelof van der Merwe castle Virat Kohli’s off stump right after his half-century:
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