India vs England, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli's and Co's patient approach no match for hosts' all-out attack

The game between England and India at the 2019 Cricket World Cup was so important, and not just for the teams taking part. An India win would have thrown the chase for a semi-final spot wide open. A win for England and they would be back in the box seat. An England loss would be great news for Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand. A win for England would have been good news for, well, England.

So, England went into this game with even fewer cricket fans around the world wishing them well than normal. This was a must win for England. Lose here and they leave their World Cup in the hands of others. Win this match and then victory in their final group game against New Zealand and qualification is all but assured.

This wasn’t just a clash between the two best ODI teams in the world. It was also a clash of styles. India’s approach at this World Cup has been about making just enough. Of all the teams at this World Cup, India are perhaps the least likely to make a score well over 400. They just aren’t set up that way. Rather, they take few risks as they assess a pitch and make a score that is bang on par. This time, it was the thrashers who got the win, with the patient accumulators falling 31 runs short of England’s total.

England had Jason Roy back in their side and were able to resume their all-out attack approach. It took them a while to find their feet against the excellent Jasprit Bumrah but once set Jonny Bairstow and Roy absolutely plundered the Indian bowling. They scored 98 runs between the 10th and 20th over to put them in the box seat. An opening stand of 160 from just 22.1 overs set the perfect platform.

It was a platform that England almost wasted when Bairstow (111) and Eoin Morgan (1) both departed within two runs of each other. These wickets saw the scoring rate drop alarmingly as Joe Root struggled to find the rope and Ben Stokes got himself set. As ever with this England team, the acceleration was always coming, but for once they had someone holding them up with Root never really getting going. That he was still batting in the 45th over of the innings looked like it might damage England. They will be thankful that they still had enough.

Even with Root not doing his bit England still managed 92 runs from the last 10 overs to get them to 337/7. The star of the latter half of England’s innings was Ben Stokes who made 79, his fourth half-century of this World Cup. He did what Root could not, he found the boundary often enough to keep England heading towards a daunting total.

As you would expect, India looked to build toward the total rather than break the back of it early, they were 27/1 after 10 overs. In the absence of Shikhar Dhawan there was real pressure on Rohit Sharma to come good. England gave him the best possible chance to do just that when Joe Root put down a simple chance in the slips off the bowling of Archer when he was on just four in the second over of the match. England’s sloppiness with catching has been a big part of their stuttering World Cup campaign. That Rohit went on to make a hundred just highlighted this even more.

India looked to keep wickets in hand for a charge at the end, and thanks to England’s go slow in the middle overs they actually got to the last 10 overs needing to score a little more England had managed over the same period of their innings. With Hardik Pandya at the crease with Rishabh Pant they would have felt they have a chance of getting to England’s total, but there was a lot that was needed to be done. Pandya was particularly impressive with none of England’s bowlers able to keep the run scoring down in the same way that Bumrah had done for India. When he fell for 45 (33) India’s chances left the field with him.

It could be argued that India’s approach has more chance of success in this kind of tournament. They are giving themselves the best opportunity to adapt to conditions and their opponents. England just going hard can see them under-perform on tricky pitches. India’s approach makes it hard for them to chase down really big totals when they leave themselves too much to do in the death overs. Exactly as they did here.

England did a very good job at defending this total, and even when Rohit and Virat Kohli looked to bringing India back into the game they did not panic. When Pandya was thrashing boundaries they backed themselves. Liam Plunkett returned to the side and show England what they had been missing. He claimed 3/55 from his 10 overs, all of those wickets were set batsman.

England go on to their game against New Zealand on Wednesday with some momentum and a chance to confirm their place in the semi-finals. We will have to see if their approach remains successful going forward or if they should learn something from the team they beat at Edgbaston.

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