India versus England – unexpected result?
By: Vinay Suri: In the ongoing t20 world cup, most of us would not have predicted a loss for the English team in today’s match against India going by their recent track record, ranking number 1 in both ODI and t20 format of the game. Being put to bat by England Captain Stuart Broad, India did not seem too troubled by their well known weakness – the short delivery which England tried to exploit but with no success today.
Surprisingly Irfan Pathan opened the innings for India and did not last very long as expected. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli brought India back on track, providing the perfect launchpad from where India was expected to take off but Graeme Swann applied the brakes on the Indian acceleration by taking the key wicket of Virat Kohli with excellent figures of 1 for 17 in 4 overs while the England pacers disappointed as they posed no real threat to the Indian batting moreover Tim Bresnan’s selection did not prove fruitful for England.
Rohit Sharma made a great comeback today with a match winning half century taking India to a competitive score of 170.
England never looked like winning with wickets falling at regular intervals. England’s opening batsmen Kieswetter’s fighting knock of 35 runs was the only consolation for England as rest of the batsmen simply struggled, especially the middle order looked highly vulnerable to the spin attack of the Indian team.
Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla may have silenced their critics for the time being with incredible bowling spells that wrapped up England for a mere 80 runs with Harbhajan Singh being declared Man of the Match.
England will quickly need to get their act together, they will still continue to be one of the favorites of the tournament and we should hopefully see Samit Patel back in the scheme of things for England’s next game while MS Dhoni will have an uphill task of selecting the best 11 players for his team’s next game as he put his key players to rest for this game against England, giving a chance to the reserve players who performed exceedingly well.
As the game’s result was inconsequential in determining the future of the tournament, this result may just be a wake up call for England and just an encouraging one for India which they needed after their unimpressive win against Afghanistan.
The first week of the tournament looked as if the non subcontinent teams were going to be the favorites due to the surprising pitches prepared in Srilanka this time which seemed to have assisted the pacers but today’s match has thrown things in the open again with both the subcontinent teams India & Pakistan emerging victorious over their opponents with hint that tracks may assist spinners in the coming week. The Super 8s stage promises to be a rollercoaster ride, hold on to your seatbelt and enjoy the ride!
Vinay Suri
Latest posts by Vinay Suri (see all)
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- India versus England – unexpected result? - September 23, 2012
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