KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan half-century helped India to beat England easily in the warm-up match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Dubai.
Indian top-order batsmen led their team to a seven-wicket victory, by setting the base for a successful chase of 189. Rahul and Kishan scored 82-run off just 50 balls in their opening partnership.
Rahul provided the early impetus with 51 off just 24 balls, by smashing six fours and three sixes. On the other hand, Kishan scored 46-ball 70 with the help of seven fours and three sixes. Rishabh Pant finished the over with a six and remained unbeaten on a 14-ball 29.
England also played well, particularly with the bat, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone and Moeen making strong contributions in the middle order. Livingstone also picked up the wicket of a subdued Kohli with his leg-spin but walked off the field with a finger injury.
India bowlers showed impressive bowling as Mohammed Shami took three wickets, Jasprit Bumrah took the most important wicket of Bairstow with a perfectly directed yorker and only conceded 26 runs in his four overs.
Indian leg-spinner Rahul Chahar was expensive, as were Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who conceded 54 in his four overs including Moeen hitting him for four, six, six off the last three balls.
Squad
India
Playing: Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar
Bench: Varun Chakaravarthy, Rohit Sharma
England
Playing: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
Bench: Tymal Mills, Sam Billings, Eoin Morgan