On Sunday, England once again proved why they were labelled as the pre-tournament favourites when they posted a competitive 337/7 on the board in their 50 overs against India in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in Birmingham.

Winning the toss, England skipper Eoin Morgan showed no hesitation in opting to bat. And the opener ensured that their skipper didn’t make a mockery of himself as both Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy went all out against the Indian bowlers.

Though they were a little cautious to start, once the duo got a hang of the pitch and a measure of the Indian bowlers, there was no stopping them as they put up a 160-run stand for the opening wicket, which proved to be pivotal in their innings.

But things could have been drastically different if the Indians were a bit more confident and smarter in their approach towards the reviews on Sunday. The 11th over saw Roy try to pull a Hardik Pandya delivery towards the square leg region and miss. Though wicket-keeper MS Dhoni was quick to appeal after collecting the ball, umpire Aleem Dar wasn’t interested as he signalled for a wide.

Though skipper Kohli had a chat with his boys in the middle, he didn’t opt for a review. However, replays showed that ‘Ultra Edge’ had detected an edge as the ball passed the bat.  And not surprisingly this had the social media fraternity in splits. While the Indian fans went after the umpire and Kohli:

The English fans were happy that Roy was granted another life in the middle:

Roy would then go on to rub salt into India’s wound as he smashed a four and a six in the following two balls. It remains to be seen how detrimental that move could be as India look to chase down the target to maintain their unbeaten run at the World Cup.

Feature image courtesy: Twitter / @cricketworldcup

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EnglandIndiaJason RoyJonny BairstowVirat KohliHardik PandyaMS Dhoni Social Buzz