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India and South Africa currently occupy the top two slots on the 2023 ICC World Cup points table, the former regaining the number one position after their 100-run victory over England in Lucknow on Sunday.

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Both teams have been the most consistent in the ongoing tournament by a fair distance — while India have aced the art of chasing, South Africa have been focusing on posting massive totals on the board and exerting scoreboard pressure on their opponents.

Both, however, would have to step out of their comfort zones in their most recent wins.

South Africa pulled off a nervy one-wicket win after being invited to bat by Pakistan. They had suffered an ignominious defeat the only time they had chased before that match, and facing such a pressure before the knockouts was necessary for the Proteas to stay prepared for all scenarios.

India, on the other hand, hadn’t really tested themselves as a side batting first and found themselves in uncharted territory after skipper Jos Buttler opted for his side to field. And unlike the South Africans on Friday, who nearly threw the game away on multiple occasions, the Men in Blue managed to subdue their opposition in clinical fashion despite an underwhelming performance with the bat.

Looking back at the events on Sunday, we bring to you five standout moments from the India-England encounter at Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium:

Woakes, Willey make early inroads

The Lucknow wicket isn’t quite the batting paradise that several other venues in the ongoing tournament are, the two-paced nature of the surface was going to test both sets of batters to the hilt. Not only did English new-ball bowlers Chris Woakes and David Willey hit the right areas early in the innings, they were also complemented by some excellent fielding inside the ring.

The trio of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer tried taking the attack to the the two pacers, but ended up paying the price; Woakes breached Gill’s defence with an inswinger that rattled the stumps and got rid of Iyer with the short ball while Kohli was dismissed for a duck by Willey.

‘Hitman’ to the rescue

The in-form Rohit stood tall even as wickets fell from the other end, and eventually found the support that he was looking for from KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav, and thanks to the resilience of these three, India recovered to 164/4 from 40/3 and were eying a score in the range of 270-280 and beyond.

Rohit had struck Willey for a four and a six off successive deliveries in the second over of the innings, but decided to show restraint after seeing the pitch behave the way it did that led to three early wickets.

He went about carefully rebuilding the innings in the middle overs and at the same time, ensured there weren’t too many deliveries separating the boundaries. The ‘Hitman’ was closing in on his second century of the tournament when he holed out to Liam Livingstone at deep midwicket off Adil Rashid’s bowling.

Besides his 54th half-century in his 100th game as India captain, Rohit also went past 18,000 international runs, becoming only the fifth Indian to do so.

SKY narrowly misses out on a maiden World Cup fifty

Suryakumar Yadav walked in after Rahul perished while trying to play a rash pull shot off Willey at the start of the left-arm seamer’s fresh spell. The Mumbai Indians batter had been run out for 2 in the chase against New Zealand on ICC World Cup debut, but had dished out a much better knock in trickier batting conditions on Sunday.

Surya would get off the mark with a boundary off Willey in his second delivery, and would thereafter maintain a healthy strike rate above 100 during his 33-run stand with Rohit for the fifth wicket. SKY would have to slow down a little after Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami were dismissed in quick succession, but started accelerating once the innings entered the final powerplay.

Surya was just one short of a half-century when he went for an inside out slog straight down sweeper cover’s throat, giving Willey his third wicket of the day.

Bumrah, Shami rip through English top four

Surya’s dismissal resulted in runs drying up towards the end of their innings and India finished on 229/9, well short of the 250-mark that they would have expected to breach with SKY around. The Men in Blue needed early wickets if they were to successfully defend the modest total, and with the defending champions racing to 26/0 inside four overs, things weren’t looking too good.

Enter Bumrah, who changed the complexion of the game with two magical deliveries — inducing an inside edge onto the stumps off Malan’s blade before trapping Root LBW plumb in front of middle.

Bumrah had created an opening with those two deliveries, and Shami managed to capitalise on it by setting all-rounder Ben Stokes up nicely before castling him for a 10-ball duck and getting Jonny Bairstow to get a bat-thigh deflection onto the off stump in his very next delivery — albeit in a different over. England were reduced to 39/4!

Kuldeep, Jadeja maintain stranglehold

Bumrah and Shami had run through the English top four and reduced them to 39/4. India were back in the game! All that was needed was for left-arm spinners Kuldeep Yadav (wrist) and Ravindra Jadeja (finger) to maintain the stranglehold on the Englishmen through the middle overs and ensure they weren’t able to get away with the game by building partnerships.

Kuldeep got rid of England captain Jos Buttler with a peach of a delivery to breach his defence and rattle stumps. He would later get Liam Livingstone dismissed LBW, reducing England to 98/8 with the threat of a massive defeat imminent for the Englishmen. Jadeja, meanwhile, would get Woakes stumped after the latter decided to give him the charge down the track.

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