'One of the Greatest': Sanjay Manjrekar Explains Why Rohit Sharma's 87 vs England is an All-time Classic

On a sluggish pitch in Lucknow, India captain Rohit Sharma aced the challenge and played a fine innings against England setting the base for his team’s sixth win in a row in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

Rohit made 87, the top score by any batter from either side at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Sunday. The next best was an enterprising 49 off 47 from the bat of Suryakumar Yadav followed by a solid 39 off 58 from KL Rahul.

How challenging were the conditions for batters was crystal clear when it was England’s turn to bat as under lights, India bowlers ran through their line up to bowl them out for 129 in 34.5 overs.

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Rohit has scored three double-centuries in his ODI career that includes the highest ever individual score in the format’s history.

For Sanjay Manjrekar, Rohit’s hard-fought 87 against England in Lucknow is one of the finest ever innings in the history of ODIs.

“When we talk about Rohit Sharma’s ODI batting and his greatness, we talk about the three double hundreds, and he scored a quick hundred recently as well. But according to me, this knock is one of the greatest ODI innings,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.

He explained, “There are two or three reasons for that; the pitch was slightly tricky in the afternoon, the bowling challenge was quite good, the tactics Jos Buttler used were also high quality, and India were under pressure.”

Manjrekar then pointed out how crafty Rohit is as a batter, capable of threading narrowest of the gaps to score runs.

“You might remember a shot he played, I think off Adil Rashid’s bowling, it was an extremely small gap, and he hit a drive with power to find the boundary. Then he hit Moeen Ali over mid-off against the turn. This artistry sets Rohit Sharma apart,” he said.

Manjrekar, who played 37 Tests and 74 ODIs, feels that several India players in the ongoing world cup are in prime form and the hosts are a class apart from their opponents.

“It’s not only Rohit, six or seven Indian players are at their peak. We talk about generation gap but nowadays there is a huge gap between India’s cricket and the other teams’ cricket,” Manjrekar said.

India have retaken the top spot on the cricket world cup points table and will next take on Sri Lanka in Mumbai this Thursday.