Rohit Sharma

India pacer Mohammed Siraj, who sent back both these batsmen, has revealed that skipper Rohit Sharma and senior batter Virat Kohli had a role to play in the first wicket he took, giving him the confidence to capture the crucial wicket of Babar, which started the collapse. He ended the match with figures of 2-50.

In the afternoon, Jasprit Bumrah’s intelligent variations and Kuldeep Yadav’s accurate wrist-spin, along with other bowlers amongst the wickets, meant India bowled out Pakistan for just 191 in 42.5 overs. From being 155-2 at one point, Pakistan lost eight wickets for just 36 runs in 13 overs.

The firework-filled innings saw records galore by Rohit Sharma, who became the joint-fastest to 1000 runs in a World Cup (tied with David Warner at 19 innings each), surpassing Chris Gayle's record of most sixes (553), most centuries in a 50-over World Cup (7) and the fastest century by an Indian at the World Cup (63 balls) -- in that order -- during the course of his 31st ODI century.

Addressing a press conference ahead of the third ODI against Australia, where he'll return to lead the side, Rohit showed faith in Ashwin and looked impressed by the team's performance against Australia in the first two ODIs.

Providing clarity, the team captain is optimistic about the complete recovery of all-rounder Axar Patel and batter Shreyas Iyer before their World Cup opener on October 8. However, he acknowledged that the spin-bowling all-rounder will be unavailable for a portion of their World Cup lead-in series against Australia.

The stylish opener also said the Men In Blue need to be the "best" in the business to leave all "strong" teams behind in the quest for the World Cup trophy. The ODI World Cup has once again returned to India after a gap of 12 years and will start on October 5.

The 213-run target wasn’t easy to chase on this pitch, which was tricky to bat on. The chase wasn’t good for the Lankans as they lost the wicket of Pathum Nissanka in the third over, after which they lost two more wickets in the Power-play.  Two of these three wickets were claimed by pacer Jasprit Bumrah while Mohammad Siraj bagged the third.

After Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj picked three wickets apiece while Aasif Sheikh and Sompal Kami played gusty knocks in guiding Nepal to a competitive 230, the rain stopped the proceedings for two hours. By then, India reached 17 for no loss in 2.1 overs and the target was then revised to 145 in 23 overs as per DLS method when the game resumed at 10:15 pm.

The pair compiled 685 runs at 76.11 in the nine instances batting together in the format. Taking out their only partnership together while not opening the batting, their average partnership jumps to 85.37. 

"Ajit (Agarkar, chief selector) is new to the picture and he didn’t know what was happening before that. I have tried to keep him updated as much as possible. But one thing I want in this team is to make sure everyone is okay to bat anywhere. That's one thing we need to keep in mind. Now, cricket is moving in a different direction."