Birmingham: England survived to live for another day as they outbatted India for a 31-run win in a high-scoring World Cup encounter, keeping their semifinal hopes alive here Sunday.
Openers Jonny Bairstow’s hundred (111, 109b, 10×4, 6×6) and Jason Roy’ (66, 57b, 7×4, 2×6) half century set the platform and a cavalier 54-ball 79 by all-rounder Ben Stokes took England to an imposing 337/7 in 50 overs after batting first, neutralising the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal (0/88) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/72) with some heavy duty hitting.
The total proved to be good enough as Rohit Sharma’s (102, 115b, 15×4) 25th ODI hundred and skipper Virat Kohli’s (66, 76b, 7×4) fifth consecutive half-century could only take India to 306/5 as England captain Eoin Morgan rotated his bowlers effectively at the death.
England, now on 10 points, will need to beat New Zealand in their last game to qualify for the semifinals while India (11 points from 7 games) will need to win at least one of their remaining two games – against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – to seal the last four spot.
India’s defeat Sunday will also make Pakistan’s (9 points from 8 matches) chances of qualifying for the semifinals a tad difficult.
Chris Woakes (2/58) and Liam Plunkett (3/55) were steady and impressive but it was Jofra Archer’s (0/45 extra pace that the Indian middle-order, including the hard-hitting Hardik Pandya (45), found difficult to negotiate.
And when Hardik found it difficult, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (42 n o) with his waning power-hitting abilities could not have done better against Archer even though he gave a better account of himself compared to the previous games.
KL Rahul (0) did not have the measure of Woakes as he was out for a nine-ball duck bringing Kohli and Rohit together. They were cautious till the 15th over before opening up against Adil Rashid (0/40) and Stokes, hitting the duo for a flurry of boundaries.
While Kohli reached his fifth successive half-century of the tournament, it was Rohit who dominated the bowling after reaching his own half-ton.
Their 138-run stand ended when Kohli’s slash drive off Plunkett was pouched by substitute fielder James Vince at point. Rohit and young Rishabh Pant (32) added 52 runs and the Indian vice-captain also reached his 25th ODI hundred in the process. However, his innings ended as Woakes got him first ball off his second spell, caught by Jos Buttler.
Pant tried his short-arm pull-shot off Plunkett and was brilliantly caught by a diving Woakes in the deep as Dhoni joined Pandya. Earlier, Mohammed Shami (5/69) got his maiden five-wicket haul taking his tournament tally to 13 wickets in just three games he played.
