The Indian cricket team fans were left shell-shocked as in-form Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck during the Cricket World Cup 2023 match against England in Lucknow on Sunday. Kohli faced nine balls and was ended up gifting his wicket to David Willey without scoring a single run. It was a short of the length ball from Willey and Kohli ended up miscuing his shot completely. Ben Stokes had no difficulties in completing the catch as the crowd at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow was left stunned. The star batter has enjoyed a brilliant run of form in the competition till now with one century and three half-centuries.
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bowl first.
The defending champions have lost four of their five matches and come in unchanged at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium in hunt of victory to cling on to their slim hopes of making the semi-finals.
England’s last loss was a crushing-eight wicket defeat to Sri Lanka after they folded for 156.
“We haven’t done ourselves justice,” admitted Buttler.
Rohit Sharma’s India remain the team to beat with five wins in as many matches and come in with the same team that beat New Zealand last week.
Home fans at the stadium believe a win over England is a foregone conclusion.
“India is going to bash England today left, right and centre,” Roi Shaunauk, 29, told AFP.
Shaunauk said he came in the hope that Virat Kohli would equal all-time great Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record of 49 centuries and become “the best”.
Indian players are wearing black armbands in tribute to Bishan Singh Bedi, a former captain and spin great who died October 23 aged 77.
England’s dismal campaign has left them bottom of the table behind even The Netherlands and one of their small coterie of supporters in Lucknow laughed when asked about their chances.
“I’ve been wanting to come to India for a long time and the opportunity to see England play was a bonus,” said Alex Piper, 32, on a two-week trip to the country with friends.
“Unfortunately, it’s not worked out so well for us.”
Teams
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (capt/wkt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
(With AFP inputs)
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