Having registered back-to-back victories in the first two encounters, team India will next face the toughest challengers from their group in England today, at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2023.
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With the English side undefeated as well, a win for either of the two teams today, will all but confirm their place in the semi-final and help them perhaps finish as the group table-toppers.
As things stand at present, two huge victories in their opening two matches against West Indies and Ireland have placed England at the top with a better Net Run Rate than India’s.
The head-to-head record for both the teams in the last 5 T20Is is pretty much even-steven, with England just ahead having notched-up three wins.
While England have pretty much ticked all the boxes in each department of their game so far, the Indian bowlers have not been clinical enough with the ball in hand so far, and would look to put up a better show in this particular facet today.
Gqeberha pitch report
The two T20 World Cup 2023 matches so far at St George’s Park have been low-scoring ones. However, Australia chased down Sri Lanka’s total of 112 runs, with 25 deliveries to spare and 10 wickets in the bank during the previous match here last Thursday.
The spinners are likely to do much of the talking, with the pitch offering decent turn for them coupled with some low bounce, as was witnessed during the above mentioned match here.
While there are no demons as such expected from the track today, the batters will likely be more comfortable facing the pacers, especially with the new ball when they will be able to get on top of the bounce whilst playing their shots.
The average score across the five matches at this venue this year stands at 156.2, which might well turn out to be a match-winning score for the team batting first. All in all, one should expect an even contest with bat and ball here today.
