India bash defending world-champions England, one win away from  qualifying for Semis

It was expected to be a nail bitter of a game but instead the India-England game turned out to be a walk in the park for the Indian side as they defeated the defending world champions by 100 runs which is the biggest margin by which India has won against England in World Cup history. This win helped India put one foot in the semis as they need only one more win to officially enter the semi-finals, having won all 6 games played in the World Cup yet.

Coming into this contest, India and England decided to keep the same team from their previous game. However, keeping in mind the pitch at BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium and its turning nature,

India should’ve gone in for three spinners which meant Ravi Ashwin (who can also bat decently) coming in most probably in place of Mohd Siraj who has a slight drop in form compared to Mohd Shami who is in fiery form with 9 wickets in 2 matches and while Suryakumar Yadav did play an important innings of 49, it could’ve been more prudent to substitute him with Shardul Thakur, an all-rounder, who would’ve given India an extra bowling option. Not that India needed it against England but this is something, India should do in their next games until Pandya is fit enough to return to the XI.

Winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, England wanted to put pressure on India, who have been largely comfortable chasing this World Cup which they did through a great start. A good delivery from Chris Woakes to Shubman Gill and a couple of poor shot selections from Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer put India in a tough spot as they saw themselves at 40/3 just after the opening powerplay.

It was then up to the skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul to have a stable partnership, who delivered just that with a 91-run partnership before Rahul too gave away his wicket after attempting to play a lofted shot. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma who was captaining India for the 100^th game played a captain’s inning where he showed a balance between taking risks and playing shots and defending enough to not lose his wicket early.

Rohit was playing well and just as he was looking as if he was about to make his 8^th WC century, but it just wasn’t to be as he was dismissed after an amazing catch by Liam Livingstone in the deep. After Rohit’s dismissal, it was Surya’s crucial inning of 49 and a good batting cameo by Jasprit Bumrah which propelled India to 229/9.

Moving on to the second innings, having set a meagre target of 230, the entire pressure was on the Indian bowling lineup which has impressed everyone in this World Cup with their aggressive bowling that had not let any opposition reach a score of 300 or above in the 5 games that India had played and chased. Bumrah (3/32) started off with the new bowl for India along with Siraj (who didn’t seem in great touch today with 0/33) and found two early wickets in the form of Dawid Malan and Joe Root in the fifth over itself.

The game started turning in India’s favour the moment the ball was handed over to Shami (4/22) who came in smashing and took the wickets of the dangerous Ben Stokes and Johnny Bairstow in quick succession and then that of Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid to bring the game closer to India.

In the meantime, Indian spinners did not want to be left out of the party and joined in. Soon after this, Kuldeep Yadav (2/24) bowled the ‘Ball of the Tournament’ to dismiss the English skipper Jos Buttler and Jadeja (1/16) bowled a bit wide of the off-stump to let KL Rahul stump Chris Woakes. Kuldeep also then LBWed Liam Livingstone who looked to sweep the ball to bring the English batting attack to its knees. The match was brought to an end by a beautiful Bumrah-style yorker to dismiss Mark Wood on a duck. This was also the third duck in England’s batting after Joe Root and Ben Stokes and fourth in the game which includes Virat Kohli.

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