Sawt Falasteen - Kohli, Rohit hit 50s as India make 179-2 against Netherlands

The Indians headed into the clash on the back of their thrilling last-ball win over Pakistan in Melbourne at the weekend, where Kohli starred with the bat and Arshdeep Singh the ball.

They brought some of that energy to a boisterous and near-full stadium, with Kohli (62 off 44 balls) and skipper Sharma (53 off 39) both in fine touch, sharing in a 73-run stand.

Yadav, arguably the world's best T20 batsman on current form, was also in the runs, lashing 51 from 25 with India crunching 112 from the last 10 overs.

India are in a rich vein of form, winning back-to-back series against Australia and South Africa at home ahead of the World Cup as they target their first global silverware since the 2013 Champions Trophy.

They are firm favourites to make it consecutive wins in Group 2 against a Dutch side that worked hard to come through the preliminary round and then put up a fighting performance in a nine-run loss to Bangladesh on Monday.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat in the first-ever T20 clash between the two teams, opener KL Rahul again failed to fire, trapped lbw by Paul van Meekeren on nine.

That brought superstar Kohli to the crease -- cue huge roars from the drum-beating, flag-waving crowd.

He and Sharma turned on the style, clobbering some top-class boundaries, but the tight Dutch attack refused to let them run away with it, restricting India to 67-1 at the halfway point of the innings.

Sharma was in good touch and brought up his 29th T20 half-century in his 144th game, cracking four sixes along the way, before he was out looking for another, taken by Colin Ackermann near the ropes off Fred Klaassen.

Yadav joined Kohli and the runs began flowing more freely.

Kohli reached his second successive 50 and 35th in his T20 career with a single as the pair steered India to a strong total, with a six off the last ball.

R.Halabi--SF-PST