Mohammed Shami on fire as England slip to 84-6 in pursuit of 230 against India

Paceman Mohammed Shami took three wickets as India left England struggling on 846 in their chase of 230 to win Sundays ICC World Cup 2023 league stage clash Jasprit Bumrah struck on successive balls to send back Dawid Malan for 16 and Joe Root for nought to be on a hattrick at a deafening and nearlypacked Ekana Stadium in Lucknow Jonny Bairstow played out the hattrick ball but England soon lost Ben Stokes bowled by Shami to raise Indias hopes of defending the total Shami then brought the house down when he bowled Bairstow for 14 as 46000 fans largely all Indian in blue jerseys roared England kept losing wickets including skipper Jos Buttler for 10 off Kuldeep Yadav and Shami struck one more time to flatten the opposition at the 25over markEarlier in the match Rohit Sharma produced a special effort on a challenging pitch where the majority of Indian batters struggled as the hosts were restricted to 229 for nine by England in their World Cup game here on SundayAlso ReadTop seven teams at ICC World Cup 2023 to qualify for 2025 ICC Champions TrophyWith India getting to bat first for the first time in the tournament the batters got a good opportunity to set the target It was however only Rohit 87 off 101 and Suryakumar Yadav 49 off 47 who found a way to bat on a twopaced wicket while the others perished trying to force the paceThe 91run partnership between Rohit and K L Rahul 39 off 58 stabilised the innings after India found themselves at 40 for three in the 12th overRohit also added 33 valuable runs with Suryakumar but the skippers fall led to a clutch of wickets In his second game of the competition Suryakumar then batted around the tail to get some much needed runs in the death oversEngland were finally able to put together an effort worthy of defending champions excelling both with the ball and in the fieldChris Woakes 233 impressed in his sevenover spell with the new ball while leggie Adil Rashid 235 continued to collect wickets in the middle overs David Willey 345 too was effectiveApplication was going to be the key on the relaid red soil pitch here and Rohit put up a masterclassAfter consuming six dot balls in the first over of the game bowled by Willey the India skipper released the pressure by smashing the leftarm pacer for a couple of sixes and a four in his following overRohit used the feet both against the pacers and spinners to manufacture the boundaries but the likes of Virat Kohli 0 off 9 balls and Shreyas Iyer 4 off 16 departed while searching for that pressure release shotIt was a rare duck for Kohli who tried to step out like Rohit only to mistime his shot to Ben Stokes at midoffShreyas was sent back by Woakes off a perfectly placed short of length ball that got big on the India number four Clearly Shreyas needs to fight the demon in his head to improve his short ball playWoakes had struggled for accuracy thus far in World Cup but delivered on SundayWith three batters dismissed for 40 the onus was on Rohit to take the innings forward and he did with a lot of classAfter stepping out the fast bowlers Rohit displayed his artistry against the spin trio of Rashid Liam Livingstone and Moeen AliHe swept Rashid reverseswept Livingstone and came down the track to loft Moeen over midoff for three of the 10 fours he struck His pickup shot off Mark Wood that went all the way was also sublimeIn Hardik Pandyas absence India fielded five bowlers again but R Ashwin remained out of the playing elevenWith inputs from agencies