World Cup Live Report - England vs India

36m ago

India targeting Livingstone now. This was him in the 25th over, KL Rahul took a risk and swept him off the straight

This is Livingstone in the 27th over, Rohit Sharma reverse sweeps him, he rarely reverse sweeps.

The 29th over brings more runs, Rohit charging out of his crease twice. That he does often to all bowlers.

47m ago

Matt Roller from the ground: England have looked a completely different side today: they’ve been on it from the start, sharp in the field and, as of the 24th over, are yet to concede an extra. It might be an oversimplification but I do wonder how much they have benefitted from the crowd and the sense of occasion, with around 50,000 fans at the Ekana in Lucknow.

Across England’s first five games, venues have been at barely 20% of capacity at the start, with lower interest in tickets for fixtures not involving India and the afternoon sunshine to contend with. Particularly for the players who have toured India several times before and featured in the IPL, it must be an unusual, demotivating experience to play in front of empty seats – albeit one they experienced during the Covid era.

57 of the 89 runs India have made at close to the halfway mark of this innings have come off Rohit's bat

He was 0 off 7. Then 17 off 11. India ran into trouble at that point. Losing Gill and Kohli for not a lot of runs.

England's seamers - Woakes and Willey at the start and now Wood at 90 mph - have made the most of a two-paced pitch, hitting it as hard as they can, just back of a length, and never giving the drive ball, or the one that can be easily cut or pulled.

Rohit understood that. He dropped anchor instead.

He was 33 off 45. Now he's 57 off 69 with a control percentage of just 76. That shows you its been a struggle. It also shows you that he hasn't given up.

1h ago

This is more or less the game India weren't prepared for in 2019. Too few runs on the board, too many overs to play, and the middle order in like the deer in the headlights.

The change right now is essentially the result of one man. KL Rahul. He grew up being an opener. So he knows what to do when the ball is getting up to some - or rather what not to do in order to survive first and by doing so set yourself up to thrive.

Putting him in the middle order also accentuates his other strength - playing spin bowling. So long as he's there, and Rohit - who has made 44 of India's 72 runs at the 20th over - is at the other end, there won't be any panic.

If this stand is broken, then that brings Suryakumar Yadav in and for all his talent he hasn't cracked ODIs yet; averages 26. Then there's Ravindra Jadeja, who last hit an ODI fifty in December 2020 and then its the bowlers.

Hints of movement off the seam.

Plenty of dot balls.

No release on offer.

Woakes and Willey have been SPECTACULAR here.

India were running at them early on, but they never panicked.

They held to their plan. To pull the length back and hit the pitch hard.

And with the pitch being two paced, with their own skill in bowling wobble-seam balls, they've managed to extract just enough to consistently trouble India.

Iyer 4 off 15, having just been beaten by one nipping away off the seam, then nicking one which fell short of first slip, faces up to a short ball and the two-paced nature of the pitch strikes. It's on him too quickly. It cramps him for room too. That's a place from which you can't control the pull shot.

4 wickets for Chris Woakes in the World Cup right now. He's doubled his tally (2) coming into this game in the space of one spell today (hat tip to Matt Roller)

Outside edge flying over the slips gets India's first boundary in seven overs.

9 runs between the fifth and 10th overs. These are the joint-fewest runs India have made between the 5th and 10th overs in a men's ODI since 2007

England limit them to just 35 runs in the first powerplay. That's their best work in this phase of the game at this World Cup, comfortably beating the 56 for 2 against Sri Lanka

Willey in the 5th over

Woakes in the 6th over

Willey in the 7th over

Two balls before Kohli charged down the track to hit over mid-off and failed, he smacked an on the up cover drive right off the middle of the bat. Malan at short cover dived to his left and stopped it one handed. It was brilliant work. And having kept Kohli on strike - on 0 off 8 - having built all that dot ball pressure, Willey gets the pay-off. Stokes as soon as he took the catch pointed to Malan as if to say that was your wicket too. Or maybe he was pointing to Jos Buttler, the under-fire captain. Anyway, it was a lovely spell of play. Lucknow goes silent.

1 Run for India over 12 balls between the 5th and the 6th overs with Rohit almost being caught at first slip off Woakes

In almost every over so far - there's been six - India have made attempts to come down the track.

Even the brand new ball had dribbled through to the keeper in Chris Woakes' first over.

England are getting movement, early on it was swing, now they've gone wobble seam, and that variation appears to be getting some purchase.

Gill got bowled to seam movement. Kohli got beaten to seam movement. (And there was bounce too)

To counter that, India's batters are pushing to come down the wicket. Because there's no pace for them to worry about. Even if the fast bowlers go short suddenly, they should be able to adjust. It's just the odd bit of seam movement and they want to get on top of that by advancing at the bowlers.

Looked wobble-seam. The ball pitching on a good length. Gill going for the drive on the up and down the ground. The movement into him surprises him and the stumps are a mess.

"Stony silence for the wicket," says Matt Roller from the ground, "Followed by a roars as the crowd see Kohli walking out. Announced as 'The King, Virat Kohli' on the PA"

45 According to ESPNcricinfo's logs, Rohit Sharma has offered an aggressive response to 45 of the 147 balls he has faced in the first powerplay in this World Cup. Essentially, he is looking for a boundary once every three balls

The second best on that list right now is David Warner, with 42 aggressive shots attempted. That number was down at 29 before the chaos of the 771-run game last night.

Before that game, Rohit's 45 aggressive responses from just four innings was playing de Kock's 36 aggressive responses from as many as six innings. That wass a VERY healthy lead.

Rohit's still ahead and he might open it up further. But for now, David Willey keeps him quiet. Maiden to start the game.

Take two goes Rohit's way. 0 (7) turns into 17 (11)

Massive roar in Lucknow as the crowd realises they'll see the India batters fronting up first up. They haven't batted first in any of the five matches they've played so far in this World Cup.

Jos Buttler says England's decision to bowl is a gut decision. Unchanged team from the one that got beat by Sri Lanka. India are unchanged too. Hardik Pandya still recovering from his ankle injury.

Rohit Sharma says they wanted to bat first. He says they've had a good time batting second, but this looks like a good pitch to him, new surface after its been relaid. He says its played quite nice and that his team doesn't mind batting first.

India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Joe Root, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Jos Buttler (capt/wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 David Willey, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.

3h ago

PS - You can watch the entire England vs India World Cup match LIVE on ESPN+ if you're in the USA. Just click here.

Also, ball-by-ball commentary of the match is available in Hindi and in Tamil too

3h ago

All too often, he has walked in with England already in trouble: at 68 for 3 against both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and at 38 for 4 against South Africa. He has attempted to launch counterattacks, but has not lasted long enough to change the tide. That Buttler has only batted at No. 4 three times since the 2019 final - a role which would enable him to set games up - is a damning reflection on England's long-term planning.

3h ago

Andrew Fidel Fernando has penned a classic: Kohli sits now on 48 centuries, one short of Tendulkar. If cricket is a religion in India, Kohli is decidedly not its god. That position has been filled and Kohli has never had those ambitions anyway. He has been human. Has tried to be the best of humans, the most productive of humans, and cricket-wise the most aggressive of humans even.

This, unapologetically, is who he has always been. Always revelled in being.

India are doing the thing they said they would do in 2022 but didn't. Bat like bosses. No matter the consequences. And ironically enough, the release of those ties they used to bind themselves has propelled them straight to the top. They came into this World Cup as favourites and with every passing day they are only adding to that impression, to the point that on three different occasions, individual batters looked for their centuries knowing full well that the victory was already in hand. That's domination on a whole other level.

England have ridden that high. All the way to the summit, even. But right now it must feel like they're stuck in one giant doomscroll. Even the man who kickstarted the revolution, Eoin Morgan, appears to have turned on em.

At least we can just put the phone down and go do something else when we're stuck. But these guys have to keep going back to the field of their nightmares and try to do better.

It's bonkers. It's brave. It's funny. It's weird. It's sport. And if we know anything about sport, it will always surprise. Nobody thought England would be bottom of the points table.