Super six win for India sinking England to another embarrassing defeat
By K.R. Nayar
Ekana Cricket Stadium
The other contributors to the victory were KL Rahul’s 39 off 58 balls with three boundaries and Suryakumar Yadav’s 49 off 47 balls with four boundaries and a six. They posted a total of only 229 for 9 in 50, which was a gettable total for England. While India literally hit England for a six to maintain their unbeaten six victories in a row, England crashed to their fifth defeat in six games. There was a time when it used to be said that India never knew to play in England conditions. Today that remark has reversed. None of the England batsmen had any clue on how to handle the Indian attack.
The question when England began to bat was whether England was happy having restricted India, and whether it would be easy for them to chase under lights. It looked like England could do it when David Malan hit Mohammed Siraj for a six and a boundary in the second over and he put on 30 runs in four overs along with Jonny Bairstow.
The joy of success. Photo BCCI
However, from the fifth over, the answers began to
emerge. Bumrah’s Boom delivery forced Malan to chop the ball on to his wicket
for 16. Joe Roots was trapped leg before with the next delivery from Bumrah for
a duck. The ball skid back and kept a bit low.
From the eighth over, it was Mohammed Shami’s turn. He
took the valuable wicket of Ben Stokes clean bowling him for a duck. Next to go
was Jonny Bairstow who also got clean bowled by Shami for 14. Local boy
Kuldeep Yadav was introduced in the 16th over. He produced a beauty with the
first ball to clean bowl skipper Jos Buttler. The manner in which the ball went
through the bat and pad gap to hit the stumps was a treat to watch.
Dejected England team
Liam Livingstone then kept the scoreboard moving along
with Moeen Ali even though half the side was back in the pavilion. Shami was
brought into the attack again in the 24th over. He struck with the very first
ball forcing Moeen Ali to edge into the gloves of wicketkeeper KL Rahul for 15.
Then it was Jadeja’s turn to strike. He did that with the first ball of the
29th over. He got Chris Woakes stumped by Rahul for 10. Livingstone who scored
27, was trapped leg before by Yadav.
With Adil Rashid and David Willey at the crease,
England crawled past the 100-run mark. At the score of 122, Rashid got clean
bowled by Shami for 13. Bumrah yorked Mark Wood for a duck to complete
the formality and bowl England out for 129 in 34.5overs.
Earlier, England won the toss and elected to bowl. It
was an unusual start for India with England’s David Willey, who bowled the first over, producing a
maiden. In the second over too, it was just one boundary by Shubman Gill.
However, when Rohit Sharma hit a boundary and a six off successive balls and a
last ball six off Willey, it was assumed that India’s practice of a whirlwind
start had begun. Their joy was short-lived as Gill was clean bowled by
Chris Woakes to the last ball of the fourth over for 9.
Another brilliant captain's knock from Rohit Sharma
A bigger blow awaited India sinking the nearly 50,000
crowd into silence. Virat Kohli got out to Willey caught by Stokes at mid-off
for a duck. Shreyas Iyer joined Rohit Sharma, but he lasted only 16 balls to
score four runs before falling to Woakes top edging to Mark Wood at mid-on.
This was followed by a strong partnership of 91 between Sharma and KL Rahul. It
looked like the pair would take the team to a big score. Sharma recorded his
54th ODI fifty too.
When the
partnership was nine runs short of the 100 mark, Rahul played a careless shot
and got caught by Bairstow at mid-on off Willey for 39.
In the 37th over,
Rohit Sharma’s fine knock came to an end when he slogged Adil Rashid into the
hands of Livingstone at mid-wicket for 87. Much was excepted off Jadeja but he
fell leg before to Adil Rashid for 8. Rashid ended his quota of ten over
with figures of 2 for 35. Mohammed Shami too got out quickly to Wood for 1.
Suryakumar Yadav then began to display his wide range
of shots. He scored a quick 49 off 47 balls before playing Willey into the
hands of Woakes in the deep covers. Kuldeep joined Bumrah and took the score to
229 for 9 before Bumrah got run out to the last ball of the innings for 16.
Kuldeep remained unbeaten on 9. No one would have expected the total to
be good enough for a win but Rohit and his team did it and won it.
Cricket and mental make up is so visible, After the NZ opening game thumping Win over England, England has lost it in the mind. With such an awesome one day team and defending champions, they are not short on skill
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