World Twenty20: Harbhajan spins India to 90-run win over England

The offspinner, making his comeback to international cricket, demolished England with a four-wicket spell after India posted a challenging 170.

Rohit Sharma returned to form with a half-century of dominance and class to help set England a challenging total in their Group A game at the World T20 in Colombo.

Sharma, who has endured some miserable form in recent times, produced a powerful innings of 55 in 33 balls to help India score 170 for 4 from their 20 overs. On a slightly slower pitch than was anticipated, it is a total that may prove some way above par, while the 51 runs that India - and Sharma in particular - plundered in the last four overs may prove crucial.

So, too, might the team selection and the toss. While England inserted India in the knowledge that the rain could intervene and the Duckworth-Lewis method appears to favour the team batting second in T20 cricket, they may have erred in the balance of their side. By dropping Samit Patel for the seam of Tim Bresnan, England looked a slow bowler short, with Graeme Swann by some distance the most effective bowler.

While India's experiment in promoting Irfan Pathan met with limited success - he produced one nice upper cut for four off Steven Finn before the bowler removed his off stump with a fuller delivery in the third over - a partnership of 57 in 7.5 between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir put India back on track.

Kohli, in particular, looked in sparkling form. He got off the mark with consecutive boundaries through the covers: the first a gorgeous, front-foot drive off Finn; the second a punch off the back foot against Stuart Broad. Bresnan's attempts to intimidate him with the short ball were met by an upper cut and then a pull for boundaries.

Gambhir lost little by comparison. He took successive boundaries off Jade Dernbach in the second over of the innings, first pulling a long-hop through midwicket before guiding a wider ball to point, while throwing his hands whenever offered any width and crashing boundaries through point off Finn and Broad.

Kohli gave one desperately difficult chance. On 25 he came down the wicket and, with that characteristic flick of the wrist, cracked Stuart Broad over midwicket where a leaping Swann could only get his fingertips on the ball as it raced to the boundary.

Swann was the one man to apply some control for England. Coming on after the six Powerplay overs had realised 52 runs for the loss of one wicket, his four overs conceded just 17 runs and produced the key wicket of Kohli who, beaten in the flight, lofted his attempted on drive to deep midwicket.

It might have been even better for Swann. Had wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter been able to gather cleanly, Gambhir might have been stumped on 26 with the score on 80 for 1. The batsman, deceived in the flight, was drawn down the wicket and stranded when Swann beat him, but Kieswetter could only deflect the ball and allowed India to steal a bye.

Swann's relative success raised doubts over England's decision to bring in Bresnan. While England looked to take advantage of bounce in the wicket and India's reputation for diffidence against fast bowling, the batsmen appeared in no discomfort against the short ball. Still, Swann's spell and the wicket of Kohli slowed India's run rate. From a position of 80 for 1 after 10 overs, they were able to add only 39 from the next six as Broad shuffled his bowlers - England's captain bowled his four overs in four separate spells -

His last over - the 17th of the India innings - allowed the batsmen some respite. First Rohit Sharma gave himself some room and dabbed a short ball over the vacant first slip area to the boundary before, next delivery, he took advantage of the short fine leg to pull another short delivery behind square to the boundary. In all the over cost 13.

It signalled the acceleration from India. MS Dhoni punished a full toss from Dernbach through the covers, before Sharma hit two more full tosses - one from Bresnan the other from Dernbach - for four and six to third man and point respectively. Sharma brought up his 50 - from just 31 balls - with a sweep off another full toss from Dernbach.

Dhoni was brilliantly caught in the final over - Jos Buttler, on the boundary, took the catch but, feeling himself falling over the boundary, threw the ball to Alex Hales who completed the dismissal - but Dernbach's final over leaked 17.

India made three changes to the side that won somewhat unconvincingly against Afghanistan. Virender Sehwag, R Ashwin and Zaheer Khan, all of whom could be expected to play in more important matches, made way for Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and Ashok Dinda. While India had one eye on allowing squad members an opportunity to gain some match practice, perhaps another was on preventing England from familiarising themselves with Ashwin's varieties.

Both teams are assured of a place in the Super Eights and the result of this game will make no difference to the opposition they will face in those games.