The manner in which the Indian cricket team continues to annihilate their opponents in the ongoing ICC World Cup has made them the clear title favourites.
On Sunday, they brushed aside the challenge of South Africa, skittling them for 83 while defending 327 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The win, their eighth of the competition, will ensure they enter the semi-finals as the top team on the world cup points table.
ICC World Cup: Schedule | Results | Points Table | Most Runs | Most Wickets
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on India’s dominance, saying the team is showing they are the best team by a ‘long margin’.
“You want to be the champions, you want to make sure that you win big. You want to show that you are the best team in the competition by a long distance, and that’s exactly what the Indian team is doing at the moment,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Gavaskar said the team hasn’t taken any contest lightly even though they had already qualified for the last-four stage with their massive win over Sri Lanka last week. And now they face the Netherlands in what will be their final match of the league stage.
“There is a match against the Netherlands which might be inconsequential because India is now number one. But they don’t want to stumble anywhere once it comes to the knock-out stages,” Gavaskar said.
He also pointed out that the current mentality is important especially when it comes to the knockout matches when one bad performance can undo all the work a team has put in the last month or so.
“The whole temperament, your whole mental attitude towards the match will change because in the group stage you always think, ‘Oh, there’s another match to come’. But there is no next day if you have a bad day in the knockouts. So you want to get into that winning rhythm. You want to get into that winning mentality, and that’s what the Indian team is doing,” Gavaskar said.
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