BENGALURU (India) (AFP) – Star batsman Virat Kohli on Sunday made an impact with the ball when he claimed his first one-day international wicket in nine years during the World Cup win against the Netherlands at Bengaluru.
With the Dutch crawling in their chase of 411, India skipper Rohit Sharma threw the ball to Kohli who sent back opposition captain Scott Edwards, caught behind in his second over off a ball drifting down the leg side.
It was only Kohli's fifth career ODI wicket from his gentle medium-pace and first since 2014 when he dismissed New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum in Wellington.
The last time he struck in an international match of any kind was against the West Indies in the 2016 Twentyt20 World Cup.
By the end of Sunday's 160-run win, India had used nine bowlers with only wicketkeeper KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, man of the match for his undefeated 128, not turning over their arms.
Rohit dismissed Teja Nidamauru (54) in his first and only over of off-spin to claim his first ODI wicket since 2012 and bring the game to an end.
"It's something that is always in our mind. We want to create those options in the team, today we had nine options," said Rohit who also gave two overs each to opening batsman Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav.
"This was the game we could have tried certain things."
Kohli bowled briefly earlier in this World Cup after all-rounder Hardik Pandya limped off midway through an over against Bangladesh.
Earlier Sunday, Kohli, who equalled Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record of 49 ODI centuries last week, made 51 in India's 410-4.