Dubai: Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami picked identical figures of 3/15 as India skittled out Scotland for just 85 in a Group 2 match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium here Friday. Apart from Jadeja and Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (2/10) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/29) were other wicket-takers for India in an innings where they were just too good for Scotland’s batting.
Inserted into batting first, George Munsey made a great start by whipping Bumrah for a six over square leg. He went on to reverse sweep Varun Chakravarthy over third man. But Bumrah made the first breakthrough for India, foxing Kyle Coetzer with a slower ball, which he chopped on to his stumps.
Munsey continued his fine show with the bat, smashing Ashwin for a hat-trick of fours in the fourth over, including reverse-sweeps on the last two. But Shami brought Munsey’s promising stay to a halt as he hit straight to mid-on in a wicket-maiden final over of power-play.
Jadeja made double strikes in the seventh over, taking out Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross in four balls. While Berrington missed one turning away and crashing to his middle stump, Cross was trapped plumb lbw on backfoot. Michael Leask swept Chakravarthy for a four before hooking and slapping Shami for a six and four respectively in the next over.
But in an attempt to slog-sweep Jadeja in the 12th over, Leask missed the delivery and was trapped plumb in front of middle stump. Two overs later, Chris Greaves holed out to long-off off Ashwin, giving India a stronghold in the match.
Shami’s third over of the match saw him clean bowl Calum MacLeod on the first ball. Safyaan Sharif wandered outside the crease and was run-out by Ishan Kishan running from mid-wicket. Shami had another wicket with the yorker, claiming Alasdair Evans. Bumrah wrapped the innings by ratting Mark Watt’s leg-stump to become the leading wicket-taker for India in T20Is.
Brief scores: Scotland 85 all out (George Munsey 24, Michael Leask 21, Ravindra Jadeja 3/15, Mohammed Shami 3/15) against India
IANS