Defending champions England produced a clinical performance with the ball to restrict India to a below-par score at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Put into bat for the first time in the ICC World Cup 2023, India struggled on a sluggish pitch against the likes of David Willey and Adil Rashid.
The Men in Blue managed just 229 for 9 in their 50 overs despite a swashbuckling 87 from captain Rohit Sharma.
Rohit, Surya fire for India
The Hitman brought up his second fifty of the tournament but missed out on a century as he got out to Rashid while trying to accelerate the scoring.
Suryakumar Yadav (49) and KL Rahul (39) also made useful contributions but the overall score seems too low against a strong but out-of-form English side with the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes in their ranks.
Willey and Woakes star for England
Chris Woakes started the damage early on in the first innings when he removed opener Shubman Gill for 9 before Willey got the big wicket of Virat Kohli for a duck.
Woakes then sent back Shreyas Iyer to reduce India to 40 for 3 before Rohit and Rahul recovered the innings with their 91-run partnership.
But Rahul fell against the run of play while trying to smash Willey out of the stadium. Rohit and Surya then added another 33 for the fifth wicket but things went downhill after the skipper's dismissal in the 37th over.
India kept losing wickets at regular intervals with only Surya waging a lone battle in the death overs. Willey finished as the best of the English bowlers with 3 wickets while Woakes and Rashid grabbed two scalps each.
"Nice to do well with the new ball. It was nice to get back in rhythm, we bowled in the right areas today. Picking up wickets is always nice, we put them under pressure early on.
"I missed my lengths earlier in the tournament, was a bit frustrating, but I hit the right areas today. The fielders backed up the bowlers and that set the tone for us. It's two paced with the new ball.
Hopefully the conditions get better under lights. It's a good Indian side, hopefully we bat well and chase it down," Woakes said at the mid-innings break.
