India beat defending champions England in the World Cup 2023 match played at Ekana Sports City, Lucknow to remain unbeaten in the major event on Sunday.
Batting first, the hosts struggled to post a big total as England managed to pick up wickets at crucial moments in the match. However, skipper Rohit Sharma’s knock of 87 runs along with Surya Kumar Yadav’s 49 runs propelled the Indian team to a modest total of 229 runs in 50 overs with the loss of nine wickets.
Defending a relatively low target, the Indian bowlers rattled England’s batting line-up as the defending champions were bowled out for 129 runs in the 35th over that led to a 100-run victory for Rohit Sharma’s men.
With today’s win, India registered their sixth consecutive triumph in the mega event as the hosts have one foot in the semi-finals and are at the top of the points table.
Meanwhile, Jos Buttler’s men are on the brink of being knocked out of the mega event as after six matches, the defending champions have registered just one win so far, which came against Bangladesh in Dharamshala.
Second over, England struggled in the face of India’s lethal pace attack and were 39-4 with their top batting – Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Ben Stokes – sent back to the stand with the latter two out for a duck.
The rest of the damage was done by the spin attack of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja as they shared three wickets between them.
Mohammad Shami was India’s pick of the bowlers as the pacer bowled a remarkable spell, taking four wickets for 22 runs and making it almost impossible for the English batsmen to connect with the ball.
Jasprit Bumrah was the second highest wicket-taker for India with three scalps to his name.
During the second innings, a record was set as for the first time in the history of the Cricket World Cup, the number three batsmen of both the teams — Virat Kohli and Joe Root — lost their wickets without scoring a single run.
Earlier in the day, the Indian batsmen – batting first – struggled to score on a tough Lucknow wicket from the start as opener Shubman Gill lost his wicket after scoring nine runs, leaving his side 26-1 in four overs .
He was followed by Kohli and Shreyas Iyer as the England bowlers continued to put pressure on the hosts and made them 40-3 in 11.5 overs.
However, India achieved a breakthrough thanks to a 91-run partnership between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul.
After Rahul returned to the stand, Suryakumar Yadav became Sharma’s partner during the innings.
Sharma could not hold on to his wicket as he failed to read Adil Rashid’s googly and ended up playing a sloppy shot, eventually caught by Liam Livingstone after scoring a crucial 87 runs, leaving his side at 164-5 in 36 overs, 5 overs.
For once it looked like India would have to settle for a score below 200 runs, but Yadav scored a valuable 49 runs, missing out on his half-century by just one run as he was caught by Chris Woakes at deep backward point.
The hosts will now face Sri Lanka on November 2 in Mumbai, while defending champions England will play Australia on November 4 in Ahmedabad.
