India's Rohit Sharma walks onto the field ahead of the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)Speaking after a closely contested four wicket win over Pakistan in their T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 opener, India captain Rohit Sharma said winning a game such as this would boost the team’s confidence, just like it did to Pakistan at the last World Cup.
“The confidence is definitely on a high,” he said. “Now we know that we can win matches from situations like these. When you win like that in a World Cup, the morale of all 11 players is raised.”
He further added, “As you would’ve seen, the way Pakistan beat us last year, their confidence rocketed post that. Unfortunately they lost in the semifinal but they way they played cricket was really good to watch.”
Four down for 31 just crossing the powerplay, India were barely standing in their 2022 T20 World Cup opener as they chased 160 against a fire breathing Pakistan bowling attack. Which is when Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya stitched together a 113 run stand for the fifth wicket.
“It was the best partnership I’ve witnessed,” said Rohit. “When you have guys like these in the middle, you especially believe that you’ll get that score. Obviously it wasn’t an easy situation. But we would back these guys to get the target it together.”
On Kohli, who scored an unbeaten 82 off 53 deliveries, the Indian skipper said, “It has to go as his best knock for India.”
“Those two sixes off Haris Rauf really changed the game for us. We knew if we could keep the 15-16 runs for the last over, the pressure would be on the bowler in the last over.”
The Test match analogy
India had put a grip on the match in the powerplay, courtesy of Arshdeep Singh taking both the Pakistan openers out of the equation in his first two overs. The left armer, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar was finding movement early in the game that made the life of Pakistan batters tough in the middle.
“The first 4-5 overs were brilliant to watch,” said Rohit. “It almost felt like a Test match. The way Bhuvi and Arshdeep got the ball swinging. There was good carry in the pitch. It was a good cricketing wicket.”
Talking further about the nature of the wicket, Rohit said, “That back of length wasn’t easy to play. Lot of guys got wicket today bowling that. There was grass on the wicket and weather was quite nippy. Hardik in particular bowling that length, couple of their batters playing cross batted shot, we got rewarded.”