England sink to all-time low

Cricket365
September 23, 2012

England's lowest ever T20I total – 80 all out – handed the defending World Twenty20 champions a humiliating 90-run defeat at the hands of India in Sunday's Group A clash at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

England's lowest ever T20I total – 80 all out – handed the defending World Twenty20 champions a humiliating 90-run defeat at the hands of India in Sunday's clash at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

The result was a damning indictment of England's inefficiencies against spin bowling, with Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla sharing seven wickets in the record rout.

While both teams have qualified for the Super Eights stage of the tournament, the Indians sport superiority after topping Group A, with minnows Afghanistan handed an early exit.

England's arguably incorrect decision to bowl first saw India amass a formidable total of 170 for four in their 20-over allotment on the back of 40, 45 and 55 not out from Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma respectively.

Steven Finn proved the pick of the bowlers thanks to figures of two for 33, while the selection of seamer Tim Bresnan ahead of spinner Samit Patel left a rather one-dimensional edge lacking a complementary force to Graeme Swann.

India used the fixture as an opportunity to experiment, and would have been forgiven for conceding a heftier total after resting spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and seamer Zaheer Khan.

Chawla and Harbhajan, however, made up for the star duo's absence, with the latter marking his comeback to the international fold in prolific fashion. Out of favour since July last year, Harbhajan grabbed his opportunity with both hands, securing the best figures – four for 12 – by an Indian in T20I cricket.

Craig Kieswetter's standalone 35 at the top of the knock was as good as it got for England's reply, with tail-ender Jade Dernbach's dozen the next highest score. Their was nothing promising about the chase, and it took a 20-run stand for the 10th wicket between Dernbach and Finn to afford the final tally some marginal respect.

Numbers 10 and 11, though, couldn't push the total beyond the 88 England fell to against the West Indies at The Oval in 2011. Saturday's outcome carried India to third spot in the T20I rankings, while England dropped to third, with South Africa first.