New Delhi: After mouth-watering bowling spells from Mohammed Shami (3/15) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/15), a fiery 70-run opening partnership between Rohit Sharma (16-ball 30) and KL Rahul (19-ball 50) powered India to a resounding 8-wicket win over minnows Scotland on Friday in the Group 2 match of Super 12 stage of ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Team India has made a stunning comeback in the tournament after back-to-back loses in first two games, however, it still may not be enough for them to reach the semi-finals if New Zealand defeat Afghanistan.
India chased down the 86-run target in just 39 balls after which their net run-rate is now above New Zealand and Afghanistan.
Earlier, birthday boy Virat Kohli, after losing three consecutive tosses, won his first-ever toss in T20 World Cup 2021 and invited Scotland to bat first. Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja rocked the Scottish batters with some sensational bowling. The Indian bowling duo bagged three wickets each to restrict Scotland to 85/10.
For Scotland, Michael Leask and George Munsey scored the maximum runs as no other batter could score more than 30 runs in their team.
Scotland had one of the worst starts possible as after Bumrah castled skipper Kyle Coetzer in just the third over, Shami bagged the wicket of another opening batsman Munsey in the 6th over. When the scoreboard read 27/2 by the end of 6 overs, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja picked two wickets in the 7th over to further dent Scotland's innings.
Scotland had lost four wickets for just 44 runs by the end of 10 overs. In the next few overs, Bumrah and Jadeja took the remaining wickets to restrict their opponents to a paltry 85/10.
India playing XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Chakaravarthy, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Scotland playing XI: George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer (c), Matthew Cross (wk), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Alasdair Evans, Safyaan Sharif, Bradley Wheal