England 148 for 3 (Morgan 51, Chahal 2-27) beat India 147 for 7 (Raina 36, Moeen 2-21) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
England’s bowlers were excellent in their reading of the pitch and their control thereafter © AFP
They waited, and waited, and waited, and finally England’s bowlers had the chance to spearhead a victory on this tour. True, none of them picked up more than two wickets, but that only established how good they were as a unit. India were kept to a measly 147 on a pitch that wasn’t in anyway untoward and as icing on the cake Eoin Morgan shellacked a half-century to make sure his team took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes were given a brief to bowl length and just short of it, while ensuring the batsmen do not have room to use their pace to relieve the pressure. Moeen Ali was at his restrictive best, picking up 2 for 21 in four overs, targeting the stumps with flat darts and in the end their specialist spinner Adil Rashid was not even needed.
India, who had lost the toss and were put in, seemed rather obsessed with power-hitting. They had gone through the entire World T20 playing proper cricket, only to be brutally swept aside by West Indies in the semi-final. From the moment Virat Kohli carved the second ball of the match for four through point, it seemed like they were trying go for the boundary every single ball. It did not pay off tonight, as England dashed a little bit of the Republic Day celebrations at a jam-packed Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
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Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo