2023 ODI World Cup digest – Masterful India maul South Africa Air quality a worry in Delhi

The Men’s 2023 ODI World Cup is now building towards the final on November 19. Each morning we will round up the latest action and news from the event and bring you the insights from our reporters on the ground.

—

Top Story: Jadeja razes South Africa for 83 after Kohli scores 49th ODI ton

India 326 for 5 (Kohli 101*, Iyer 77, Maharaj 1-30) beat South Africa 83 (Jansen 14, Jadeja 5-33, Kuldeep 2-7) by 243 runs

Virat Kohli gifted himself a record-equalling 49th ODI century and India their eighth successive victory in this World Cup, on his 35th birthday. When Kohli drew level with Sachin Tendulkar, with a punched single in the penultimate over of India’s innings, a crowd of 60,000 at Eden Gardens celebrated with Kohli and made it a memorable birthday bash.

Kohli, who walked out to bat in the sixth over after Rohit Sharma had won the toss and challenged India to bat, batted till the end of the innings, lifting India to an above-par 326 for 5. He ended up outscoring South Africa who could manage just 83 in 27.1 overs. Ravindra Jadeja bagged career-best figures of 5 for 33 to wreck South Africa’s chase and consign them to their joint second-lowest total in ODI cricket.

Match analysis: Kohli soaks up the spotlight so that India can celebrate and shine

The path Virat Kohli chose in Pune was a dangerous one. He possibly didn’t even choose that path but was led down it by KL Rahul. Not the path where he tried to hit sixes to get his 48th hundred even as India were running out of runs to chase. But the one where they started manipulating strike to get him there.

India had plenty of overs and wickets in hand, so there was no risk of losing. Let’s also put aside the possible disrespect to the opposition – telling them you are beating them with plenty of time to spare – because there are arguments against that too. It was the attention he was drawing to himself. Telling the whole country, which hangs on to his every word and gesture – that he is so keen to get to No. 50 that he is willing to do something he has never done.

Must Watch: What does India’s dominance mean for the rest?

News headlines

Delhi’s poor air quality could force the ICC to cancel the clash between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with protocols being put in place to monitor the situation right up until game time with points to be shared if no play is possible.

Moeen Ali says England’s older players perhaps did not see the writing on the wall ahead of the World Cup after losing six of seven matches to be knocked out of the tournament.

Match preview

Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, Delhi (2pm IST; 8.30am GMT; 7.30pm AEDT)

This may not be the must-win scenario either side would have envisioned towards the tail-end of this tournament, but the ICC’s confirmation that the top seven finishers (and hosts Pakistan) will gain qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy has given what would have been a largely inconsequential game some much needed purpose.

Both sides’ troubles are well documented. Since their opening game win against Afghanistan, Bangladesh have lost six on the trot. Only England have a worse record, and Bangladesh have lost to them too. For a side that had won 24 of 39 ODIs since the start of 2021, this has been the most underwhelming of tournaments, especially in conditions that on the face of it looked like it might have suited them.

Team news

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Litton Das, 2 Tanzid Hasan, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk) 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Towhid Hridoy , 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Shoriful Islam.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kusal Perera/Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis (capt, wk) 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Angelo Mathews 7 Dushan Hemantha 8 Maheesh Theekshana, 9 Kasun Rajitha, 10 Dushmantha Chameera 11 Dilshan Madushanka

Scenarios: What do New Zealand and Pakistan need to do to qualify for the semi-finals?

England have been eliminated, South Africa have qualified for the semi-finals, while the fight for the last two semi-finals slots is largely between Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Here is how the qualifications scenarios look for those teams.