ICC World Cup 2023: Sensational Shami on song!

Mohammed Shami is ecstatic after dismissing England’s Moeen Ali at Lucknow yesterday; (right) Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Joe Root. Pics/PTI

With their magnificent skipper in the forefront, India were at their scrappy, combative, feisty best in front of 46,000 screaming fans at the Ekana International Cricket Stadium.

Batting first for the first time in the World Cup on a surface of dubious nature which discouraged expansive stroke-making, India seemed to lose the plot at the start of their innings against England on Sunday afternoon until the steadying hand of Rohit Sharma came to their rescue.

Rohit rocks

Rohit has been at his marauding best all competition long but dialled down on the aggression in deference to the conditions, playing a splendid hand of 87 after India were put in by Jos Buttler. KL Rahul helped him add 91 for the fourth wicket and Suryakumar Yadav applied the finishing touches with a classy 49 as India finished on 229 for nine, below par but still worth a fair bit, given England's brittle batting and India's quality attack.

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After a brief flourish from Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow, Jasprit Bumrah rocked England with the scalps of the former and Joe Root off successive deliveries, in his third over. From there, it was a dramatic downhill slide for the defending champions, who looked as if they'd rather be anywhere but out in the middle as they rolled over for 129 to lose by a massive 100 runs.

England slumped to their fifth defeat in six games, and though they are mathematically still in with a chance, their tournament is as good as over. India clambered back to the top of the table with their sixth successive victory.

Kuldeep cleans up Buttler

Once Bumrah had softened the underbelly, Mohammed Shami stepped in to deliver the knockout punches. Bairstow, a strangely uncertain Ben Stokes who played a shocker of an innings, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were all blown away as Shami followed up his five-for against New Zealand with a four-wicket burst, while Kuldeep Yadav produced a beauty to clean up Buttler. England were extraordinarily poor with the bat, their capitulation complete long before Bumrah knocked Mark Wood over with a yorker.

The holders had been a lot better with the ball up front, maintaining excellent disciplines and backed up by electric fielding. India, used to bossing the Powerplay, were lured into false strokes with Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer perishing to poor strokes, leaving Rohit to rebuild in Rahul's company.

The skipper had started in a belligerent fashion but quickly reined his natural instincts in, playing the percentages in the company of Rahul, having a very good tournament in front of and behind the stumps. Slowly, they prised the game out of England's grip until Rahul went against the run of play, and when Rohit fell with a hundred beckoning, India seemed to be selling themselves short.

Suryakumar, with some assistance from the long tail, gave India something to fight with and the bowlers then came to the party. And what a party it was!

Brief scores
India 229-9 in 50 overs (R Sharma 87, S Yadav 49, KL Rahul 39; D Willey 3-45, C Woakes 2-33, A Rashid 2-35) beat England 129 all out in 34.5 overs (L Livingstone 27; M Shami 4-22, J Bumrah 3-32, K Yadav 2-24) by 100 runs