T20 World Cup: Memorable comeback by Bhajji as India thrash England

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made a memorable comeback as a India relied on a clinical all-round performance to thrash defending champions England by a whopping 90-run margin in their final group league match of the ICC World Twenty20 on Sunday.

Put into bat, India posted a challenging 170 for four, riding on a superb unbeaten 55 from under-fire Rohit Sharma and useful contributions from Gautam Gambhir (45) and Virat Kohli (40).

The two comeback men -- Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla -- then spun a web around the England batsmen to bowl them out for a paltry 80 in 14.4 overs as they accounted six wickets for 25 runs in the eight overs between them.

Harbhajan had splendid figures of 4/12 with two wicket-maiden overs as England batsmen were totally clueless against the duo.

This was India's biggest victory margin in terms of runs in any Twenty20 Internationals.

Playing his first international match in more than a year, Harbhajan got the ball to turn appreciably and also found the zip of the pitch. The off-breaks were turning viciously and the straighter one was equally lethal.

He bowled Eoin Morgan with a superb arm-ball and then got Tim Bresnan to sweep against the turn. Jose Butler got a classical off-break from the feisty off-spinner while Graeme Swann had no clue about the straighter one.

Chawla, who had figures of 2/13, got rid of Jonathan Bairstow with a superb googly while Craig Keiswetter who was top scorer with 35 could not read his leg-break.

Earlier, Rohit finally came good in an international match as he planned his innings to perfection, hitting an unbeaten 55 off 33 balls with five fours and a slashed six off Jade Dernbach.

An upper-cut off England captain Stuart Broad was also a treat to watch as the Mumbai youngster finally repaid the faith shown by his skipper who persisted with him despite repeated failures.

... contd.

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