T20 World Cup, India vs England: Who won yesterday's match?
Indian fans couldn't have asked for a better all-round display from their team as Virat Kohli and co. thumped England by seven wickets to win their first warmup match ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup. Mohammed Shami's 3/40 and Ishan Kishan's 46-ball 70 highlighted a win that ticked a lot of boxes for the Indians.
Chasing England's 188-5, India got off to a sublime start. KL Rahul and Kishan's new opening pair safely saw off the first three overs for 15 runs. England's bowlers must have deduced it as a wicket-taking opportunity, but it turned out to be the calm before the storm.
The next four overs went for 18, 16, 10, and 14 runs as the right-hand left-hand combination blasted England's four different bowlers all around the ground. KL Rahul cracked on to a masterful 24-ball 51, giving India a taste of such special timing that it would have left the Punjab Kings (PBKS) fans envious. At least two of his three sixes were hit out of the ground, prompting a bowling change.
Rahul got off trying to hit the fourth maximum soon after getting to his fifty with his trademark loft over extra cover. But he had ensured India a beautiful platform by that time - 82-1 in the ninth over.
Skipper Kohli replaced Rahul in the middle, but he once again looked wanting a release shot to get himself going. He batted with the lowest strike rate (minimum five balls) in the game, scoring a 13-ball 11. Kohli's mode of dismissal was also worrying as he mistimed a wayward slog against part-timer Liam Livingstone.
Meanwhile, as the drama continued from one end, Kishan put his little shop on the other. He had a few lucky dropped catches but showed exhilarating ruthlessness against spinners and pacers alike. He even hit 24 runs off one over against Adil Rashid - clearing the ropes twice alongside two boundaries.
Kishan was dropped for a third time when he was batting at 70 (46) and decided to walk away to allow others to get some practice. This brought two new batters, Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant, to the crease. The former did hit one boundary but looked a bit at sea for his nine-ball eight. His wicket - a misjudged ramp shot - came as a blessing in disguise for India.
Hardik Pandya, who hasn't had much practice of late, joined hands with Pant. This was a crucial phase as the duo are likely to handle most of India's finishing duties at the World Cup. They were asked to chase 20 from 12 balls, which despite Pant's good form could have gone either way had Pandya struggled.
But the all-rounder came out with flying colors, hitting a couple of boundaries under pressure against England's best death bowler Chris Jordan. Rishabh Pant gave a gift of sorts to new team mentor MS Dhoni by not taking the match to the final over and finishing it off with six off a pull over deep square leg.
A keeper-batter from Jharkhand going big. Another keeper finishing it off with a six. Happy debut for Mentor Singh Dhoni! 🇮🇳
Rahul's free-flowing bat, Kishan's form, Pant and Pandya's finishing skills - India could not have asked for a better warmup game.
India's pacers keep England down to 188
Think breakthroughs, think Mohammed Shami 😍
Team India fans, how excited are you to 👀 him back in 🔵 with a 💥 - let us know with a GIF!
ICC Men's #T20WorldCup21 #INDvENG #LiveTheGame https://t.co/wm1In2Psp3
Having been put in to bat first by Virat Kohli, England's openers Jos Buttler - who also stood as captain for Eoin Morgan - and Jason Roy looked in sound touch in the powerplay.
Fit-again Bhuvneshwar Kumar opened the bowling alongside Jasprit Bumrah. The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) pacer started gently, offering loose deliveries on pads, bowling no-balls and lacking any kind of pace. Jason Roy took advantage in the third over and hit him for 13 classy runs, giving England the first bit of momentum.
Mohammed Shami came in as the first change in the fourth over and straightaway found himself under the firing of Buttler.
The stand-in captain hit Shami for a lap-sweep on the first ball and followed it up with a nearly umpire-knocking powerful smack straight down the ground. Shami didn't take any more of it as he pulled his length back, took a bit of pace off and castled Buttler's top of off-stump, drawing first blood for India.
Shami came back to bowl the sixth over and this time sent back the other opener. Roy looked to swivel a leg-stump delivery over short fine-leg, but was fooled by Shami's lack of pace and ended up giving a dolly to the fielder.
A lengthy nine-over spell from spinners ensued. India had gone with two of them for this game - Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Chahar - due to the flat pitch. Surprisingly enough, Ashwin, playing his first game in Indian colors after so long, didn't try many variations and stuck to a probing yet defensive line and length.
He brought the run rate into control as Chahar was given a free hand at the other end. The leg-spinner looked short of game time. He bowled some brilliant deliveries, one of which, a quick googly, took out the ICC's top-ranked T20 batsman Dawid Malan. But when under pressure from Liam Livingstone, he tended to bowl either too full or too short. This showed in his costly figures of 1/43.
Livingstone - 30 off 20 - looked better against spinners than what he did in the IPL and this match might have just revved up his engine a bit more.
As this phase of incessant spin ended, so did the entertainment from behind the wickets. The absence of a crowd meant that the TV audience was constantly treated with gems like "Are leg-spin daal do Ash bhai. Yahi mauka hai, yahi dastoor hai, armaan poore karlo" from Indian 'keeper Rishabh Pant as he egged Ashwin to bring out his leg-spinners which he didn't.
Livingstone built a decent partnership alongside Jonny Bairstow. The latter, coming at no.4, looked scratchy at the start but opened up at the death. He found gaps well as the highest scorer with a 36-ball 49. In the end, both of them became victims of brilliant yorkers. Bairstow hit a massive six against Shami to which the bowler exacted revenge by blasting off Livingstone's furniture.
Bumrah, who had looked solid rather than spectacular so far, then came in the 18th over and blew off Bairstow. The yorker on this occasion must have sent the Englishman back to the Oval where he was brushed aside in a similar fashion during the Test series. Bairstow's wicket meant England fell at least 15 runs short of a par score despite Moeen Ali's (43 off 20)'s brilliant 21-run final over against Kumar.
Conspicuous by their absence in the innings were India's Varun Chakravarthy, Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja, who didn't take the field. Rohit Sharma also didn't field, with the vice-captain most likely taking some time off. Hardik Pandya was seen fielding, but he didn't bowl at all, which could be an indication of what lies ahead.