In the need to defeat Scotland by a higher margin to increase their Net Run Rate (NRR), Team India bowlers bundled the opposition out for 85 runs in 17.4 overs at the Dubai International Stadium on November 5. The match 37 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 saw Virat Kohli win the toss on his birthday and opt to bowl first.
Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja clean up the Scottish side as they took three wickets each while Jasprit Bumrah takes two and R Ashwin takes one. After losing openers George Munsey and Kyle Coetzer to pacers, it was Jadeja who came and shook the middle order with two wickets in a single over.
Munsey (24) and Michael Leask (21) were the only players to score 20+ runs. Calum MacLeod (16) and Mark Watt (14) did try to help get the scores on the board but it did not help much.
Now, what does India need to do?
India needs to chase this down in:
— 11.2 overs to get their NRR to +1.000
— 8.5 overs to go past NZ’s NRR
— 7.1 overs to go past AFG’s NRR
* if they score exactly 86
India had endured two back-to-back defeats vs Pakistan and New Zealand. The side bounced back and hammer Afghanistan by 66 runs and opened their account in the tournament.
However, that win won’t be enough as they need to register another convincing victory against the Scottish side and also against Namibia in order to better their NRR going ahead into the tournament. They even need to hope other results go in their favour as well.
