Gros Islet (St Lucia), June 24 (IANS): Captain Rohit Sharma unleashed carnage on Australia’s bowlers by smacking a stupendous 92 off 41 balls to help India post a mammoth 205/5 in 20 overs against Australia in a crucial Super Eight stage clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium here on Monday.

Rohit was in the mood to go all out from the word go, standing head and shoulders above everyone to pulverise Australia by hitting seven fours and eight sixes at a strike rate of 224.39, leaving fans breathless. Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, and Hardik Pandya chipped in with 31, 28, and 27 not out respectively to take India to a fabulous total, where 15 sixes were hit – the most maximums hit by them in a T20 World Cup game.

Despite Rohit’s brutal assault, Australia did well to come back, with Mitchell Starc and Marcus Stoinis taking two wickets each, while Josh Hazlewood was superb in his spell of 1-13.

Pushed into batting first, India suffered a body blow in the second over when Virat Kohli fell for a five-ball duck after his attempt to pull Hazlewood resulted in the top edge being caught by Tim David running 26m from his right at mid-on. Starc tried to swing the ball into Rohit but bowled full and wide balls, which the India skipper lofted twice over cover for consecutive sixes. It was followed by Rohit hammering Starc over mid-on for four and slog-sweeping plus top-edging him (on a full toss) for two more sixes to take 29 runs off the third over.

Rohit welcomed Pat Cummins with an almighty slog-sweep going over the stadium roof at 100m before rain intervened. After a ten-minute rain interruption, Rohit continued to go berserk with a slice and top-edge getting him two more fours, before bringing up his fifty in just 19 balls.

Rishabh Pant joined the boundary-hitting party with a pulled four off Hazlewood and welcoming Adam Zampa with a dancing down the pitch loft over long-on for six. Rohit swiped Zampa for a huge six, followed by heaving Marcus Stoinis for four and two sixes – with the standout being his dancing down the pitch and lofting inside-out going over extra cover fence.

Though Stoinis had Pant holing out to long-off, Rohit carried on by pulling Stoinis for two fours, followed by Suryakumar square driving, swiping through long leg, and lofting over extra cover to take three quick boundaries. Starc finally had the last word when his slower yorker coming from round the wicket castled Rohit for 92 off 41 balls.

With this knock, Rohit became the top-scorer for India in T20Is, surpassing Virat Kohli's record of 4103 runs. Sharma now has scored 4114 runs.

Dube got going with an upper cut off Starc going for four, followed by smacking Zampa for a big six over deep mid-wicket and driving Stoinis through mid-off for four more. Suryakumar Yadav heaved Stoinis for six and cut Starc in the gap between backward point and short third-man for four more.

But Starc had the last laugh by getting Suryakumar to cut a wide off-cutter behind to the keeper in his final over. Pandya broke the brief lean period by slapping Cummins for four and using his bottom hand to hit sixes over extra cover and long-off. Despite Dube holing out to deep cover off Stoinis, Ravindra Jadeja’s flicked six off Cummins in the final over took India past 200.

Brief scores:

India 205/5 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 92, Suryakumar Yadav 31; Mitchell Starc 2-45, Marcus Stoinis 2-56) against Australia