England vs India: Preview

Date: Sunday, June 14
Time: 17:30 GMT
Venue: The Oval

England hopes of World Twenty20 success are on the line, but who would have felt that defending champions India are in a similiar state of mind. For both teams, this is a must win game.

If India lose this game, then they are out. Simple as that. Not even net run rate will help the champions as the winner of the England v West Indies game will join South Africa.

England, on the other hand, the case is not the same. A loss would not mean the hosts being knocked out but it seriously dents their hopes. Net run rate will decide the fate if England manage to beat West Indies and South Africa beat India. Now, this is going to be a close one.

Group E

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR
South Africa	2	2	0	0	0	4	+0.898
West Indies	2	1	1	0	0	2	-0.150
England	1	0	1	0	0	0	-0.668
India	1	0	1	0	0	0	-0.707

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Focusing on just the game now, India will be strong favourites. Of course they would, as England are on the back of a humbling against the mighty South Africans. But, after they’re embarrassing loss against the Netherlands, they recovered fantastically well as they demolished a unbalanced Pakistan side.

India looked good before they were well beaten by the West Indies but remember the two wins were against minnows Banglandesh and Ireland.

How is the game going to go? Who’s going to shine on the day? Either Ravi Bopara, Luke Wright and Kevin Pietersen will have to have a really good innings as the trio are key to England’s performance with the bat.

Meanwhile, India will always look to big hitter Yuvraj Singh to come up with the goods, and their spinners will always be a threat as the likes of Harbajhan Singh and Pragyan Ojha are always economical and are frequent wicket takers.

England: Luke Wright, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood (c), Dimitri Mascarenhas,  James Foster (wk), Graeme Swann, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson,

India: Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (c/wk), Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha

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