COLOMBO: Harbhajan Singh grabbed 4-12 on his return after a year in the wilderness as India demolished defending champions England by 90 runs in the World Twenty20 yesterday.
Rohit Sharma hit an unbeaten 55 off 33 balls as the new-look Indians scored 170-4 before England were shot out for their lowest T20 total of 80 in front of 20,000 spectators at the Premadasa stadium.
India rested seamer Zaheer Khan, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and opener Virender Sehwag for the group A match that held only academic interest since both teams had already qualified for the Super Eights.
But it was a morale-boosting win for the 2007 champions ahead of the next round, as they dominated England from start to finish.
Harbhajan, 32, who had been out of favor with the selectors since August last year before being recalled for the World Twenty20, claimed a wicket off his second delivery when he came on in the sixth over.
When his spell finished in the 12th over, England had slumped to 60-8 and lost their ninth wicket also at the same total.
England were in danger of falling for the lowest ever total in Twenty20 internationals — 67 by Kenya against Ireland in 2008 — before the last-wicket pair of Steven Finn and Jade Dernbach prevented the humiliation.
But the total still fell below England’s previous lowest score of 88 against the West Indies at the Oval last year.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who was also an unexpected selection for the match, claimed 2-13 as England faltered against both pace and spin.
Seamer Irfan Pathan bowled Alex Hales and trapped Luke Wright leg-before in his first two overs to reduce England to 18-2.
Wickets fell at regular intervals and the innings ended in the 15th over to complete a dominant win for India.
Other notable contributions for India came from Gautam Gambhir, who made 45, and Virat Kohli, who smashed 40 off 32 balls.
Makeshift opener Pathan fell for eight before the in-form Kohli hit six boundaries during a second-wicket stand of 57 with Gambhir.
Sharma and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took 38 runs in the last three overs to lift India past the 150-run mark.
England made one change from the team that beat Afghanistan, dropping left-arm spinner Samit Patel to play seamer Tim Bresnan.
Harbhajan, new-look India have England in a spin in World T20
Harbhajan, new-look India have England in a spin in World T20
Sabalenka to skip events in 2026 to prioritize her health
- “The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured“
Aryna Sabalenka expects to skip events again this year rather than put her health at risk over the course of an “insane” season, even though she knows she is likely to be sanctioned by the WTA Tour for doing so, the world number one said.
Top players are obliged to compete in all four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 tournaments and six WTA 500 events under WTA rules, with the punishment for missing them ranging from rankings points deductions to fines.
In 2025, Sabalenka competed in just three WTA 500 events — Brisbane, Stuttgart and Berlin — making her one of a number of high-ranked players, including world number two Iga Swiatek, to be docked ranking points.
Asked if she would change her plans for 2026, the four-times Grand Slam champion told reporters: “The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured ...
“The rules are quite tricky with mandatory events, but I’m still skipping a couple events in order to protect my body, because I struggled a lot last season,” the Belarusian said after beating Sorana Cirstea at the Brisbane International.
“Even though the results were really consistent, some of the tournaments I had been playing completely sick or I’ve been really exhausted from overplaying. This season we will try to manage it a little bit better, even though they are going to fine me by the end of the season.
“But it’s tricky to do that. You cannot skip 1000 events. It’s really tricky, and I think that’s insane what they do. I think they just follow their interests, but they’re not focusing on protecting all of us.”
The men’s and women’s circuits have faced criticism due to their 11-month seasons, and both tours came under fresh scrutiny during the “Asian swing” toward the end of last year with injuries piling up.
In September, the WTA told Reuters that athlete welfare is a top priority and that it had listened to views on the calendar, both through the players’ council and their representatives on the WTA board, to improve the circuit structure in 2024 and boost compensation.
