India, Feb. 18 -- In a first innings of fluctuating emotions in front of a 68,510-strong home crowd that had assembled in anticipation of batting fireworks, Netherlands bottled up India's batting aggression for as long as they could. Towards the latter half of the innings though, India's power-hitting, on this occasion led by Shivam Dube (66 - 31b,4x4,6x6) exposed the difference in the depth between the two sides.

Dube and Hardik Pandya's (30 - 21b, 3x6) big-hitting propelled India to 193/6. In reply, Netherlands fell comfortably short by 17 runs. They had no answers to Varun Chakravarthy's (3-0-14-3) guile. The defending champions will head to the Super 8 with an all-win record. Challenged on occasions, but mostly unscathed.

Netherland...