Brisbane, Jan 20: A spineless India suffered their second consecutive defeat as England crushed them by nine wickets with a bonus point, throwing their cricket tri-series campaign in jeopardy here Tuesday.
Electing to bat, India were bundled out for 153 in 39.3 overs with the top five batsmen returning to the dressing room with just 67 runs on board by the 19th over on a lively Gabba track.
Steven Finn (5/33) and his pace colleague James Anderson (4/18) exploited the pacer-friendly deck to the hilt by extracting extra bounce as the Indians, barring Stuart Binny (44, 55b, 3×4, 2×6), struggled to come to terms. However, there were quite a few batsmen who got starts but then threw away their wickets with poor shot selection.
Opener Ajinkya Rahane (33), Virat Kohli (4), Ambati Rayudu (23) and Suresh Raina (1) were out playing poor shots, while Shikhar Dhawan (1) fell to a beauty from Anderson in the third over of the India innings.
England chased down the easy target with more than 22 overs to spare to collect five points, including a bonus point, from the comprehensive win.
Opener Ian Bell (88 n o, 91b) led the England run chase while James Taylor (56 n o, 63b) also scored an unbeaten half century to take their side home. The duo stitched 131 runs for the unconquered second wicket stand as they negotiated the Indian bowlers without much difficulty on a pitch that seemed to have demons while the Indians were batting. The only batsman to be dismissed was Moeen Ali. Australia are now on top of table with nine points from two matches while England have five points from two games. India will now have to win both their remaining matches if they are to qualify for the final.
India elected to bat first after winning the toss. They made two changes with Rohit Sharma missing out due to a sore hamstring and Rayudu coming into the side as his replacement. Ravi Ashwin was also left out for Binny. England made one change from their opening match against Australia, with Anderson coming in for Chris Jordan.
India’s innings would have been in shambles had it not been for a partnership of 70 runs between Binny and MS Dhoni (34, 61b, 1×4) for the sixth wicket. But once Dhoni departed with the score on 137, the tail collapsed quickly with Anderson picking up the wickets of Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami in the space of 13 balls.
Scoreboard
India: Ajinkya Rahane c Taylor b Finn 33, Shikhar Dhawan c Buttler b Anderson 1, Ambati Rayudu c Buttler b Finn 23, Virat Kohli c Buttler b Finn 4, Suresh Raina st Buttler b Ali 1, MS Dhoni c Buttler b Finn 34, Stuart Binny c Morgan b Anderson 44, Axar Patel b Finn 0, Bhuvneshwar Kumar b Anderson 5, Mohammed Shami c Ali b Anderson 1, Umesh Yadav n o 0, Extras: (lb-3, w-3, nb-1) 7, Total: (all in 39.3 overs) 153.
Fall: 1-1, 2-57, 3-64, 4-65, 5-67, 6-137, 7-137, 8-143, 9-153.
Bowling: James Anderson 8.3-2-18-4, Chris Woakes 7-0-35-0, Stuart Broad 7-0-33-0, Steven Finn 8-0-33-5, Moeen Ali 9-0-31-1.
England: Ian Bell n o 88, Moeen Ali c Kohli b Binny 8, James Taylor n o 56, Extras: (w-3, nb-1) 4, Total: (for one wicket in 27.3 overs) 156.
Fall: 1-25.
Bowling: Binny 7-0-34-1, Kumar 2-0-18-0, Yadav 6-0-42-0, Shami 4-0-23-0, Axar Patel 7.3-0-32-0, Suresh Raina 1-0-7-0.
PTI
