Match no. 38, India vs England played at Edgbaston, Birmingham. England survived to live another day as they out-batted India in a thrilling match.

Keeping their semi-final hopes alive. Opener Jonny Bairstow’s hundred (111 off 109 balls) set the platform. All-rounder Ben Stokes made 54-ball 79 took England to an imposing 337 for 7 in 50 overs

After batting first, neutralising the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav with some heavy duty hitting.

Chasing 338, India fell short by 31 runs for their first defeat of World Cup 2019.

India lost KL Rahul for a duck and Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were so cautious thereafter that they managed to reach only 28 for 1 off 10 overs.

However, both Kohli and Rohit upped before Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya played entertaining cameos to give India some hope.

But MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav baffled experts and fans alike with their go-slow approach as India slumped to defeat.

India’s defeat has now also complicated matters for Pakistan who would not be cerain of a semi-finals berth even if they beat Bangladesh in their final group match.

 India’s unbeaten streak has been broken and now the men-in-blue are ranked second in the points table.

Now, India has 11 points from seven matches. While, Australia with 14 points from eight matches has become the first team to qualify for the world cup semi-finals.

India and New Zealand still need one win each to confirm their semi-final spots.

Besides them, four teams, England, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in close contest for the fourth semi-final spot.

Captains Corner: India / England

Virat Kohli :  If batsmen are able to reverse sweep for a six you can’t do much as a spinner.

They had to be more smart with their lines as it was difficult to contain runs with one short boundary.

I thought they were going towards 360 at one stage, so we did well to pull things back. We were happy to restrict them to 330.

If we were clinical with the bat, the result could have been different, I think. We had a decent chance when they (Pant and Pandya) were in there.

We kept losing wickets and that doesn’t help in a big chase, but credit goes to England in the end.

It’s up to discussions with the two guys who were in there. They bowled in good areas and the ball was stopping, hence it was difficult to bat towards the end.

Eoin Morgan : I thought we had a perfect start. Winning the toss and batting first wasn’t an easy decision but it turned out to be the best decision.

Partnerships throughout took us to a really formidable total. From 10-20 overs we got about 90-95 runs.

It lays a huge platform and the two main spinners of India were taken on. Hopefully this is the brand of cricket that we want to play and it has taken off.

The slower balls were gripping and were taking off the deck, so we weren’t really worried.

I was really happy with India’s approach sitting back. But our bowlers were superb.

Liam has been outstanding for us, especially in the middle overs.

There is absolutely no easy game in this tournament, as Pakistan’s game against Afghanistan showed yesterday.

HIGHLIGHTS: India / England

• Bairstow (111) and Roy (66) set strong platform before Stokes (79) pushed England up to 337/7.
• Rohit Sharma (102) hits his third hundred of CWC19.
• England bowlers, Plunkett (3/55) and Woakes (2/57).
• Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s partnership was not enough for the win.
• Mohammed Shami (5/69) picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs.

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