Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was delighted after the team’s comprehensive win of 100 runs against England at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Sunday. While being asked to bat first, India could only post 229 runs on the board, which Rohit thought was 30 runs short of a par score.
However, it proved to be more than enough for the struggling England batting unit as the defending champions were folded up for 129 runs, with Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah doing the bulk of the damage.
Jasprit Bumrah started the assault as he had Dawid Malan and Joe Root dismissed on successive balls. Shami then had Ben Stokes on the knife edge as he consistently flirted with the outside edge of the all-rounder’s bat. Stokes lost patience and attempted an uncalled slog but lost his stumps without troubling the scorers.
Shami then had Jonny Bairstow chopping the ball onto his stumps whereas he also accounted for Moeen Ali on the first ball of his second spell. Shami and Bumrah then got the job done as they dismissed Adil Rashid and Mark Wood respectively.
Shami was the pick of the Indian bowlers, returning with impressive figures of 4-22 whereas Bumrah had 3-32.
Praising his pace battery, Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation, “When you start your innings, you have to try and get a couple of wickets to put the pressure back on the opposition. You can always rely on our seamers to come good and get those crucial breakthroughs. They exploited the conditions. They put the ball in the right areas. We have a good balance (in the bowling), there’s a bit of options and with experience as well.”
Rohit admitted they were challenged by the English pace battery upfront in their batting innings but some of the batters threw away their respective wickets and they need to take more accountability.
He added, “This was the game, a lot of character in the squad. All our experienced players stood up at the right time and got the game for us. Looking at how the tournament has gone for us, we had to come and bat here. We were challenged upfront, they bowled pretty well upfront. To get to a total on a pitch that had something in it, we just wanted to get to a total we could play with. We were not great with the bat. Losing three wickets isn’t the ideal situation. A couple of guys threw it, including myself. When you look at the overall picture, we were 30 runs short. It’s not something you see every day.”
India will next take on Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.
