Dubai: Brilliant fifties by Ishan Kishan (70) and KL Rahul (51) helped India beat England by seven wickets in the ICC T20 World Cup Warm-up match here Monday.
Chasing 189, the Men-in-Blue got off to a superb start as openers KL Rahul and Ishan played some brilliant shots to put on 59-runs inside the first six overs.
Rahul (51) brought up his half-century in the 9th over of the innings. But he got out by Mark Wood after reaching the landmark, which also brought an end to the 82-run opening stand.
However,’Rahul’s wicket did not slow down the run rate for the Men-in-Blue as Kishan kept on going and he brought up his half-century in just 36 balls. Indian skipper Virat Kohli joined Kishan. But i’ didn’t last long.
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England’s Liam Livingstone got the better of Virat (11), ending the 43-run second-wicket stand.
Kishan then retired hurt after playing a knock of 70 runs. Sura Kumar Yadav came into bat when Indian was 39 runs for the win. But he also got out after scoring just 8.
Then Rishabh Pant (29*) and Hardik Pandya (12*) guided Team India home with six balls to spare.
Earlier, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone played knocks of 49 and 30 respectively as England posted a total of 188/5.
Brief scores: England 188/5 (Jonny Bairstow 49, Moeen Ali 43*, Mohammed Shami 3-40); India: 192/3 (Ishan 70, KL Rahul 51, Rishabh Pant 29, Willey 1-16).
