Mohammed Shami picked 5 wickets against New Zealand in his first game of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023, before taking four more against England in a low-scoring thriller. Then came the contest against Sri Lanka in which the right-arm seamer registered another fifer to become India's leading wicket-hunter in the history of the coveted tournament!
Ahead of Sunday's game against South Africa at Kolkata's Eden Gardens, Mohammed Shami was India's second most successful bowler of the tournament -- only behind Jasprit Bumrah who had 15 wickets. The ruthless Indian bowling unit forced another batting collapse, bowling out the Proteas for a mere 83 to hand India a 243-run win.
While Ravindra Jadeja was India's best performer with the ball at Eden Gardens (5/33), Shami was once again fierce. He dismissed two in-form players who formed the backbone of the South African lineup -- Rassi van der Dussen (13 off 32) and Aiden Markram (9 off 6).
MATCH REPORT | Kohli's ton, Jadeja's fifer help India hammer South Africa by 243 runs
The double-strike took Shami's total wicket tally to 16 to become India's top wicket-taker. Bumrah's tally remains 15 as he remained wicketless at the end of the game (5.0-0-14-0-2.80).
While Shami featured in just four games, Bumrah was part of all 8 games India featured so far in the quadrennial tournament.
Mohammed Shami celebrates dismissing Aiden Markram | Salil Bera
With today's performance, Mohammed Shami has also become the fourth most successful bowler of this World Cup edition. South Africa's Marco Jansen (17 wickets), Sri Lanka's Dilshan Madushanka (18) and leader Australia's Adam Zamaa (19) are the only three ahead of him on the leaderboard, the official website of the Cricket World Cup showed.
India vs South Africa ICC World Cup tie: As it happened
The Indian juggernaut seems to be unstoppable as they maintained their 100% record at the tournament with a 243-run win over South Africa on Sunday. Leaving the likes of captain Rohit Sharma (40 off 24 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (77) to smash the crowd-pleasing sixes into the stands, Kohli never lost sight of the long game even as deafening chants of "Kohli-Kohli-Kohli" kept reverberating around the cavernous Eden Gardens ground. On Sunday, he avoided the temptation of going for the big hits over the boundary as he scored a record-equalling 49th ODI century - a milestone he now shares with Indian great Sachin Tendulkar.
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When Kohli reached triple figures with a single off Kagiso Rabada in the 49th over, he left the organisers to mark the occasion with some pyrotechnics while he simply removed his helmet, looked skywards, acknowledged the cheers and within seconds he was back marking his crease. His unbeaten 101 off 121 balls included 10 fours but tellingly no sixes in a match that the Indians had started off at a fast and furious pace, with the hosts reaching 61-0 after five overs and then 91-1 after 10 overs.
Leading wicket takers of ICC ODI World Cup 2023 (As of Nov 5, 2023)
Though it was inevitable that India would not be able to sustain the early 12.2 or 9.10 run rates over 50 overs, the 326-5 total they ended up posting proved to be insurmountable for South Africa. Bowled out for 83, South Africa fell to their second defeat of the 2023 tournament after being stifled by Ravindra Jadeja's left-arm spin. Jadeja finished with five for 33.
With Reuters inputs
