Shami lights up Lucknow as India beat crumbling England
In a game that was dominated by the ball, England restricted India to 229/9 in their 50 overs to leave the match in the balance at the midway point.
But an out-of-form England batting line-up disintegrated under the pressure built by India’s inspired pace attack, as Mohammed Shami took 4/22 and Jasprit Bumrah bagged 3/32 to wrap up a convincing victory.
In hindsight, Rohit Sharma’s excellent 87 was the key performance with the bat on the day, holding India’s innings together as wickets fell around him, with the captain going close to a century before being expertly caught in the deep by Liam Livingstone off Adil Rashid.
KL Rahul (39), Suryakumar Yadav (49) and Jasprit Bumrah (16) also ensured the tournament hosts got to a total that gave the bowlers something to work with.
The defending champions had a target of 230 to aim for and had the bonus of dew on the outfield to limit the impact of India’s spinners.
But after the first wicket fell it was a collapse for Jos Buttler’s side, with England losing all ten wickets for just 99 runs in a dispiriting display that leaves them rooted to the bottom of the standings.
India’s sixth consecutive win sends them top of the table, two points clear of South Africa in second.
After being sent into bat, an unchanged India took off at the back of Rohit Sharma's aggressive charge. He hit two sixes and a four as India took 18 off David Willey's second over.
However, England struck back quickly enough, with Chris Woakes getting one to nip back in and beating Shubman Gill's defences in the fourth over.
One brought two, as Virat Kohli went for a big shot early in his innings, couldn't time the ball, and ended up giving a catch to Ben Stokes at mid-off.
Both Woakes and Willey got the best out of the new ball, getting it to jag around and beating the bat on several occasions. The scoring opportunities reduced for the India batters, and England yielded another wicket after building up enough pressure.
A number of fuller deliveries from Chris Woakes troubled Shreyas Iyer (4), and the batter sought a release when he saw one pitched slightly shorter. However, all the Mumbai batter could find was the mid-on fielder.
KL Rahul arrived at the wicket and helped stabilise the innings along with Rohit. After seeing through a tough phase, the duo picked pace between the overs 21-30 and added 58 runs for India.
Rohit, in particular, took charge after reaching his half-century. He hit four fours and a six in his next 20 balls.
Just when India looked like they might take the game away from England, Willey returned to strike for England. Rahul tried to go down the track to a length delivery but could only get it to Bairstow at mid-on.
The arrival of Suryakumar Yadav kept the run-flow intact as the batter unleashed a set of beautiful sweeps and pulls. However, England kept coming back with breakthroughs at the right moment. Rohit fell while going for an expansive stroke against Adil Rashid in the 37th over.
And England kept the pressure up through Rashid and Moeen Ali through the middle overs, before Willey and Wood returned to do damage in the tail.
England’s reply started brightly, with Dawid Malan looking fluent.
But a brilliant Jasprit Bumrah double strike stopped England in their tracks, with Joe Root (0) following Malan (16) back to the dugout.
And India had England's top order rocking when a rusty-looking Ben Stokes had his stumps rearranged by Mohammed Shami for a ten-ball duck, with Jonny Bairstow removed by Shami shortly after to leave India well on top.
Kuldeep Yadav removed Jos Buttler for ten from 23 balls to really turn the screw, leaving England still a long way from their target and without any of their top five left.
England’s spin-bowling all-rounders dug in to try and rebuild and did a reasonable job for a while, knocking the ball around and surviving for eight overs as the game settled down.
But Moeen Ali’s patient 15 from 31 balls was undone by the return of Shami, who produced a peach with the first ball of his new spell, angling one in that then nipped away from the left-hander to find the edge.
And England’s spirit was completely broken from that point on. Chris Woakes charged down the wicket to be stumped off Ravindra Jadeja and Liam Livingstone missed a hoik into the leg side and was trapped lbw off Kuldeep to end his gutsy but scratchy 27 – the top score in England’s reply.
The two stars of India’s bowling attack finished the job in style, with Shami cleaning up Rashid and a trademark Bumrah yorker accounting for Mark Wood to seal the win.
India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
England XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c) (wk), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.