World Cup 2023: India give England a shellacking; reigning champions almost knocked out

HOSTS India continued with their superior show in the ongoing World Cup 2023 at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday (29) when they hammered reigning champions England by 100 runs in a game that the Three Lions had to win to remain the race for the knock-outs. Chasing a target of 230, Jos Buttler's side was bundled out for 129 in less than 35 overs to suffer yet another heavy defeat in the tournament.

India captain Rohit Sharma was adjudged the player of the match for his 87 runs in 101 balls.

England faced a batting collapse right from the beginning after India pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami rattled their order, reducing them to 39 for 4 from 33 for no loss. Shami ended up with four wickets for 22 runs while Bumrah picked three for 32. The remaining three wickets were shared by spinners Kuldeep Yadav -- two -- and Ravindra Jadeja.

Shami now has nine wickets in two matches after his brilliant five-fer against New Zealand in Dharamsala a week ago.

Liam Livingstone was the top scorer for England with 27 on a day when none of their accomplished batters had an answer for the India bowlers.

England restrict India to 229

Earlier in the day, England came up with an inspiring show with their bowling and fielding to restrict India to 229 for 9 in 50 overs.

The Three Lions, who had only one win under their belt from five outings before the game, put pressure on a powerful Indian batting line-up from the word go and dismissed some of the big batters such as Shubman Gill (9), Virat Kohli (0) ad Shreyas Iyer (4) cheaply.

Sharma led from the front to score his half-century and was given company by wicket-keeper-batter KL Rahul (39) and Suryakumar Yadav (49). It was because of their efforts, added with Jasprit Bumrah's 16 down the order that India reached 229 on a tricky wicket. It was Sharma's second fifty of the tournament after 86 against Pakistan.

Spearhead David Willey was the pick of the England bowlers with three wickets for 45 runs while pacer Chris Woakes and spinner Adil Rashid claimed two each. Pacer Mark Wood got the wicket of Mohammed Shami.

The win saw India climbing to the top spot in the points table with six wins in as many matches. England remained at the bottom of the table with one win in six matches and will now have to look at other teams' results besides winning their last three games if they want to make the semi-finals.