‘Kuldeep comes up’: Collingwood’s huge statement, points out India’s ’12th man’ | Cricket

Unbeaten India kept their run intact at the ongoing 2023 World Cup, with a massive 100-run win against defending champions England, in Lucknow on Sunday. Chasing 230, England were bowled out for 129 in 34.5 overs, courtesy of a collective display from the Indian bowling department. Mohammed Shami was in fiery form and bagged a four-wicket haul and Jasprit Bumrah took three dismissals. Meanwhile, spinner Kuldeep Yadav struck twice for India, with Ravindra Jadeja also bagging a scalp.

The English batters failed to make an impact as three of them got dismissed for a duck (Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Mark Wood). Meanwhile, the Indian fans present in the venue were also equally responsible for the win, cheering on for their team in a packed stadium.

Speaking to Star Sports after the match, former England captain Paul Collingwood hailed the Lucknow crowd and referred to them as India’s ’12th man’ in the tournament. “Yeah, look, it’s it’s kind of wow, isn’t it? When you’re watching it here almost in disbelief of what’s going on and the Indian bowlers say, We’re absolutely relentless, the lines and the lunch once they, got that first wicket and you heard the crowd. And when you can hear the crowd on TV, there’s obviously an amazing atmosphere there, and it’s almost like having the 12th man,” he said.

Collingwood also had special praise for Kuldeep and felt that his dismissal of Buttler was ‘probably the ball of the tournament’. In the first delivery of the run-chase’s 16th over, Kuldeep sent a short ball, outside off, which Butter tried to direct square on the off side, but he was nowhere near the ball, and it went through the gap between bat and pad, to hit the stumps. Buttler departed for 10 off 23 balls, with England reeling at 52/5. Kuldeep struck again in the 30th over, to remove Liam Livingstone (27).

“And I just thought the ball is once they got England’s first wicket, they just didn’t give them a sniff. After that, I thought about the accuracy, the skill level, that we get movement out of the pitch and then you thought maybe the spinners would come on and maybe they’ll just stick it on, but no cold. Kuldeep comes up with probably the ball of the tournament to Jos Buttler,” Collingwood added.

Initially, India had posted 229/9 in 50 overs, courtesy of a fine knock by Rohit Sharma. The India captain smacked 87 off 101 balls, packed with 10 fours and three sixes. During his knock, Rohit also reached 18000 runs in international cricket. Now, Rohit has 3677 runs in Tests, 3853 in T20Is and 10570 in ODIs. In total, he has 45 tons and 98 half-centuries.