T20 World Cup 2021 Warm-up: Rahul, Kishan lead India to seven-wicket win over England

T20 WC 2021: India finished with 192/3 in reply to England's 188/5 on Monday.

KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan of India during a T20 World Cup warm-up match between India and England in Dubai on Monday.

Openers Ishan Kishan (70 retd. hurt) and KL Rahul (51) played invaluable knocks as India chased down 189 to beat England by seven wickets in a warm-up match of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the ICC Academy Ground here on Monday.

India got off to an excellent start as it put up 59 runs inside the first six overs. Rahul picked up from where he left in IPL 2021, bringing up his half-century in only the ninth over of the innings. However, he lost his wicket to Mark Wood immediately after reaching the landmark and this brought an end to the 82-run opening stand.

Rahul's wicket did not slow the run-rate down for India as Kishan kept on going on his merry way and brought up his fifty off just 36 balls. In the 13th over, Liam Livingstone got the better of Virat Kohli (11), who walked in next.

Kishan eventually retired hurt, bringing Suryakumar Yadav into the middle with India still needing 39 runs for the win. However, he did not manage to stay at the crease for long as he departed after scoring just 8.

In the end, Rishabh Pant (29*) and Hardik Pandya (12*) took India over the line with six balls to spare.

As it happened

Earlier, Jonny Bairstow and Livingstone scored 49 and 30 respectively as England posted a total of 188/5. Sent into bat, England got off to a quickfire start as Jason Roy and Jos Buttler put up 36 runs inside the first four overs, but the introduction of Mohammed Shami paid dividend straightaway as he castled Buttler for 18. Shami also went on to remove Roy (17).

Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow put on 30 runs for the third wicket, but as soon as the duo started to gain an upper hand, Rahul Chahar provided the breakthrough as he dismissed Malan, reducing England to 77/3 in the 10th over.

Livingstone then joined Bairstow in the middle and the duo started accelerating. They stitched together a partnership of 52 runs, but Shami once again stood up for India, bowling a perfect yorker to send Livingstone back to the pavilion.

In the final few overs, Bairstow and Moeen Ali added some crucial runs to take England past 180. Moeen Ali played a useful unbeaten knock of 43 runs.

OTHER RESULTS:

In other warm-up games on Monday, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa beat New Zealand, West Indies and Afghanistan respectively.

Australia chased a target of 159 runs with one ball and three wickets to spare against the Kiwis.

Pakistan had a comfortable seven-wicket win against defending champion West Indies as it chased down 131 runs within 16 overs featuring a half-century from captain Babar Azam.

South Africa beat Afghanistan by 41 runs. The Proteas scored 145/5 in 20 overs and then restricted Afghanistan to 104/8 with spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi finishing with combined figures of 8-0-32-4.

Brief Scores: India 192/3 (Ishan Kishan 70, KL Rahul 51; Liam Livingstone 1-10) beat England 188/5 (Jonny Bairstow 49, Moeen Ali 43*; Mohammed Shami 3-40) by seven wickets. Australia 159/7 (Steven Smith 35, Marcus Stoinis 28; Mitchell Santner 3-22) beat New Zealand 158/7 (Williamson 37, Daryl Mitchell 33; Kane Richardson 3-24) by three wickets. Pakistan 131/3 (Babar Azam 50, Fakhar Zaman 46; Walsh 2-41) beat West Indies 130/7 (Hetmyer 28, Pollard 23; Hasan Ali 2-21) by seven wickets. South Africa 145/5 (Markram 48, Bavuma 31; Mujeeb 3-24) beat Afghanistan 104/8 (Mohammad Nabi 34, Gurbaz 19; Shamsi 3-18) by 41 runs.