- By Himanshu Badola
- Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:05 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND vs ENG, ODI World Cup 2023: India are still the undefeated side in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023 as they defeated England at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.
The Men in Blue thrashed the defending champions by 100 runs, bowling them out for just 129 runs in 34.5 overs while defending 229 runs.
While Jos Buttler-led England were considered a tricky opponent for the Indian team considering the fact that they had not much to lose and could have come with a fearless approach, star spinner Kuldeep Yadav eased things down by saying that it wasn't a very tough thing to pull things off against them.
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India only added to England's wounds who already are having a horrible campaign, handing them a fifth loss in the six matches as they remain at the bottom of the table with just one win and two points under their belt.
"I mean, to be very honest, it was good to win, beating the defending champions," Kuldeep said after the win. "They haven't had a great tournament so far. So it wasn't that tough (to beat England). They restricted us for like, 230. We thought probably we have to pick early wickets to be in the game, and certainly, Jasprit (Bumrah) and Shami did, after they were four down for 40 runs, we just tried to bowl in perfect areas and make them make mistakes."
On the other hand, it was India's sixth successive win in the tournament as they leapfrogged South Africa to claim the top spot in the points table with 12 points.
Kuldeep provided one of the best moments of the match as he bowled probably the 'Ball of the Tournament' to get the better of England captain Jos Buttler.
On the first ball of the 16th over, Kuldeep pitched one outside the off-stump with a flatter trajectory and got the ball to turn sharply by nearly a mile to sneak through the gate of Buttler and rattled the stumps with precision.
The manner of taking out Buttler sparked immediate comparisons with Kuldeep taking out Pakistan captain Babar Azam in a similar fashion at Manchester in 2019. But Kuldeep thinks the deliveries bowled to dismiss Azam and Buttler were just similar.
"Both the balls were good. I think both the balls were the same. There were no changes. The quality is important, and the quality of the players is also very important. They were very important wickets and the team won, that is more important," he said in the post-match press conference.
Kuldeep has been in remarkable form in the tournament so far and is the second leading wicket-taker for India with 10 wickets to his name in six matches.