Match report: Eng v Ind – Match 10, WT20
First Published : 23 Sep 2012, 22:59
Last Modified : 23 Sep 2012, 23:54
Colombo, Sep 23: Harbhajan Singh finished with career best figures of 4-2-12-4 and Piyush Chawla picked up two for 13 as India steamrolled England by 90 runs in their second Group A encounter of the 2012 ICC World T20. After Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 33-ball 55 helped India to a competitive 170 for four, the Indian spinners, led by Harbhajan, bundled England out for 80 – their lowest ever score in T20 internationals.
Earlier, India made a host of changes to the side that took on Afghanistan in their first encounter of the tournament. Ashok Dinda, Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh replaced Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and R Ashwin in this game. England captain, Stuart Broad, won the toss and elected to field first. With Sehwag not playing, Irfan Pathan opened the innings with Gautam Gambhir. The all-rounder upper-cut Steven Finn for a boundary in the third over, but was bowled in the same over when he played down the wrong line to Steven Finn. Virat Kohli and Gambhir then took over for India; the pair regularly brought out the pull shot to deal with the shot-pitched bowling dished out by the England pacers.
Kohli eventually fell for 40 (off 32 balls) when he tried to loft Graeme Swann over mid-wicket but ended up picking Jonny Bairstow in the deep. India were 81 for two when Kohli was dismissed in the 11th over. With Kohli gone, Gambhir struck a boundary each off Broad and Bresnan as India went past the 100-run mark in the 14th over. However, Gambhir’s innings came to an end soon after when the opener edge a slower delivery from Finn into the hands of wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter; he made 45.
Rohit Sharma then took on the onus of giving the Indian innings a late flourish. Sent in to bat at No.4, Sharma hit Broad for consecutive fours in the 17th over, before carving Dernbach for a six and a four in the 20th over. Sharma’s 33-ball 55* pushed India up to 170 for four. For England, Graeme Swann finished with excellent figures of 4-0-17-1; and even England’s fielding, which saw MS Dhoni (9) out caught in the deep in the final over, was largely top-notch.
Chasing 171 to win, England started disastrously. They lost opener Alex Hales (0) and No.3 batter Luke Wright (6) as Irfan Pathan struck in successive overs to reduce them to 18 for two in 2.4 overs. Harbhajan Singh, introduced by Dhoni in the sixth over, then knocked over Eoin Morgan’s (2) middle stump with the quicker arm-ball, after which Piyush Chawla bowled out Jonny Bairstow (1) off a googly in the seventh over.
Craig Kieswetter, who hit L Balaji and Ashok Dinda each for a six at the start of the England innings, was the next to go when he edged Piyush Chawla to Virat Kohli in the ninth over. Kieswetter made 35. From five for 51, England slid further to eight for 60 as Harbhajan accounted for Tim Bresnan (1), Jos Buttler (11) and Graeme Swann (0) in the space of five deliveries between the 10th and 12th over. Ashok Dinda then had Stuard Broad (3) caught at deep midwicket, while Jade Dernbach (12) was run-out in the 15th over as India won by 90 runs.
Brief scores: India 170/4 in 20.0 overs (Rohit Sharma 55*, Gautam Gambhir 45, Steven Finn 2/33) beat England 80/10 in 14.4 overs (Craig Kieswetter 35, Harbhajan Singh 4/12, Piyush Chawla 2/13) by 90 runs
Man-of-the-match: Harbhajan Singh for his match-winning bowling performance that saw him clock figures of 4-2-12-4
