ICC World Cup 2023: Sensational Shami on song!

With their magnificent skipper in the forefront India were at their scrappy combative feisty best in front of 46000 screaming fans at the Ekana International Cricket StadiumBatting first for the first time in the World Cup on a surface of dubious nature which discouraged expansive strokemaking 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 rescueRohit rocksRohit 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 Englandrsquos brittle batting and Indiarsquos quality attackAlso ReadWorld Cup Dominant India register sixth win on the trotAfter 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 theyrsquod rather be anywhere but out in the middle as they rolled over for 129 to lose by a massive 100 runsEngland 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 victoryKuldeep cleans up ButtlerOnce 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 fivefor against New Zealand with a fourwicket 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 yorkerThe 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 Rahulrsquos companyThe 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 Englandrsquos grip until Rahul went against the run of play and when Rohit fell with a hundred beckoning India seemed to be selling themselves shortSuryakumar 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 wasBrief scoresIndia 2299 in 50 overs R Sharma 87 S Yadav 49 KL Rahul 39 D Willey 345 C Woakes 233 A Rashid 235 beat England 129 all out in 345 overs L Livingstone 27 M Shami 422 J Bumrah 332 K Yadav 224 by 100 runs