T20 World Cup: India put Scotland to the sword in dominating win | Cricket News – Times of India

India continued from where they had left against Afghanistan, except this time the bowlers too joined the party as the ‘hosts’ unleashed fury on Scotland at the Dubai Sports City Stadium on Friday evening.
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Against Afghanistan, the batters had taken the initiative. Against Scotland, the bowlers wreaked havoc.

Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami shared the leading spoils with three wickets each. Jasprit Bumrah snapped up two and Ravi Ashwin took one as India won yet another one-sided game by eight wickets.
This is the kind of fury that was expected from India coming into the World Cup, one that got completely overshadowed by the brilliance of Pakistan and the consistency of New Zealand.
It has been a matter of great debate over the last 72 hours if it will indeed matter should India make it to the knockouts. Given the caliber of this Indian team and the noise it makes globally, better was expected and rightly so.

Nonetheless, they live and continue to breathe in this World Cup and next in line to face their wrath are Namibia. However, let us not forget that none of this will matter should Afghanistan fail to beat New Zealand on Sunday.
India will play their last Group 2 match on Monday.
Between now and these matches, India can breathe a sigh of relief, for whatever little it may mean. This is not how Virat Kohli’s India would have envisaged carving their way forward, especially in a format that sees India running the hottest cricket league in the world.

KL Rahul got another half-century and Rohit Sharma a quick 30 as India chased a paltry 85 set by Scotland batting first. By the time the openers left, the match was sealed.
Kohli, for a change, won the toss and put Scotland to bat first. The wicket would certainly ease out yet not the victory but the margin of victory alone would matter to him and his team.

India have bettered their net run-rate in the tournament and will look at bettering it even further against Namibia. Should Afghanistan do what is presently being seen as impossible, it’ll change the entire focus of this World Cup once again.