Dubai: England scored 188 for the loss of five wickets against India in a warm-up game played ahead of the T20 World Cup here Monday. For England Jonny Bairstow (49, 36b, 4×4, 1×6) batted well while Liam Livingstone (30, 20b, 4×4, 1×56) showed his hitting prowess before being castled by Mohammed Shami (3/40). Moeen Ali (43, 20b, 4×4, 2×6) also played a quickfire knock to boost the England total.
It should be stated here that India have rested Rohit Sharma for the game and the innings will be opened by KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan. The other factor to note was that even though he is playing the game, Hardik Pandya did not bowl a single over.
Among the bowlers, Shami was certainly the best as he troubled all the England batters with his searing yorkers. He went for a few runs, but was always breaking opposition partnerships whenever they looked threatening. He also picked up the wickets of Jason Roy (17) and Jos Buttler (18). Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (1/43) got the wicket of Dawid Malan (18) who was foxed by the wrong ‘un.
Among the other Indian bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar was quite expensive while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bowled an economical spell giving away just 23 runs in his four overs. However, the Indians should be worried about the number of wide balls (8) and no balls (2). It meant that the Indian bowlers had to bowl 10 extra deliveries in the innings. Bumrah (1/26) also got his name in the wickets column with the dismissal of Bairstow.
