Let's Go Over the Game… || Midnight Edition

Edition #3

AUSTRALIA IS PLAYING IN 3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES. CATCH IT NOW! (pun intended)

Intro:

I won't claim to be a massive cricket fan, but I keep tabs on various sports news, and cricket is not exactly one of them. After catching a few Australia games, I thought, "This is going to be very interesting." I started watching more, gathering information, and came up with this plan, especially since not everyone knows about cricket. By the way, America is actually competing with other low-market countries in cricket and might join some main tournaments soon. But, anyway, let's get started.

Let’s Discuss the Game…

70 runs. Repeat that, and you might be surprised. Compared to all the runs India has scored and won, this isn’t a lot. New Zealand put up a fight, but you have to be able to stop India’s batting. South Africa or Australia has to do that. The winner faces off against India in the ODI Cricket World Cup Finals.

India shattered the record books in this one, though.

Records:

Virat Kohli scored a record-breaking 50th ODI hundred.

Mohammed Shami took 7 WICKETS IN A GAME, THE FIRST BY AN INDIAN.

Shami has 54 wickets in 17 matches in ODI World Cups. He is the fastest bowler to reach the milestone of 50 wickets in the ODI World Cup, a record held by Starc in 19 games.

Key Points to Note:

The average victory margin for India now is 175 runs, 6.4 wickets, and 64.4 balls remaining. Australia's 2007 triumph was 147.67 runs, eight wickets, and 89.2 balls remaining.

What Happened?

In doing so, Virat Kohli scored his mind-boggling 50th ODI hundred in front of his wife, in front of the man he surpassed, Sachin Tendulkar, and at a ground where the torch was metaphorically passed 12 years ago when he carried Tendulkar on his shoulders. Shreyas Iyer scored a second straight century, at 67 balls, the third-fastest by an Indian in a World Cup, all three in this edition.

One of those three centuries belongs to the selfless Rohit Sharma, who set India up with yet another blazing start of 47 off 29, the ninth time this year that he got out in the 40s, 80s, or 90s, the joint-highest number for a calendar year.

It is no surprise that India scored the highest total in a World Cup knockout match, which was always going to be plenty at a ground that has shown the most variance in bowling friendliness from afternoon to evening this tournament. As expected, it went from no swing or seam in the afternoon to appreciable movement in the air and off the surface, followed by a surprisingly prodigious turn and no dew. Daryl Mitchell scored a scarcely believable 134 off 119 only for Mohammed Shami to thwart them with 7 for 5.

India’s batting was exceptional in this game.

Shami, though, headlined the bowling. New Zealand put up a fight, but every time Shami came to bowl, no one could stop him. They lost by 70 runs and got all out. (If you're new here and don’t know what these terms mean, I have a “for the dummies” edition.)

Conclusion:

That’s it for this one. It was pretty quick because I’m saving everything up for tomorrow's Sports Square newsletter. It will be a Q&A. I have over 30 questions, which will all be added. I’m not satisfied though. I want 20 more, and you have until 8:00 P.M. EST before I shut it down and start uploading the questions and answers. So fast! Enter your questions in the chat, which you can find on my website sportssquare.substack.com! Make sure to share this with all your friends, whether they are sports geeks or not.