It was a rocky start for Team India in their ODI World Cup contest against England on Sunday (Oct 29) as they lost wickets in tandem in the first powerplay. Playing in Lucknow, opener Shumban Gill, Virat Kohli, and Shreyas Iyer fell in quick succession as England’s below-par pace attack put a spanner in the work for the Men in Blue. Virat chasing Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in ODI, however, was unfortunate to equal an unwanted record of the great.

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Virat equals Sachin

After being dismissed for a duck against England on the fifth ball of the seventh over, he recorded his 34th duck in international cricket. This saw him go level with Tendulkar for most ducks on the international stage and widely missed out on equaling his record for most hundreds. Interestingly, this was also his first duck in 56 World Cup innings including ODI and T20Is with David Willey in ecstasy after the India batters wicket.

Most International Ducks for India

Zaheer Khan – 44

Ishant Sharma – 40

Harbhajan Singh – 37

Anil Kumble – 35

Sachin Tendulkar – 34

Virat Kohli – 34

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Playing in his fourth World Cup, the former India captain is on the hunt for the most ODI hundreds record, but for the first time in his career had to settle for a duck at the marquee event. In total he now has 16 ducks in ODI, followed by 14 in Test format while just four in the T20Is for the national side. In comparison, Tendulkar also had 14 ducks in Tests and 20 in ODIs while his only T20I innings saw him score 10 runs against South Africa in December 2006.

India off to poor start

Having lost the toss for the fourth time in the World Cup and were asked to bat first in Lucknow as the English side searched for a consolation win. Willey was the pick of the bowlers as he struck India with early blows to dent India’s batting line-up. At the time of writing, India were 62/3 in 17.3 overs as skipper Rohit Sharma was batting on 42 runs while Gill (9), Kohli and Shreyas (4) failed to make an impact. In his five overs, Willey had a tally of 20/1 with two maiden overs while Chris Woakes was on 23/2 in seven overs.

A win for India will guarantee a place in the semifinal while England can only delay their official exit from the competition with a win. They entered the match with two points from five matches and started the day bottom of the league table.  

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