Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE
England go six mad to level ODI series and with hitters like Bairstow, Stokes and Roy in the side they really believe they can chase down ANYTHING
ENGLAND’S grip on what is possible in ODI cricket remains secure thanks to an evening of brutal batting from a big-hitting quartet.
Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes led the way as England romped to a six-wicket win by overhauling India’s seemingly imposing 336-6 with 39 balls to spare.
And behind them, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone, on his one-day debut, showed that even without skipper Eoin Morgan, the six-hitting party never stops.
A whopping 20 sixes were hit between the four of them as the rest of the world were put on notice, as if they needed it, that no total is safe once this England juggernaut gets moving. It was absolute carnage as Bairstow reached his 11th ODI hundred from 95 balls before falling for 124, while Stokes’ was denied his ton by the barest of margins.
His stunning 99 came from just 52 balls.
“We always go out and play as positively as we can,” said Stokes, who hit 10 sixes on his own.
“It is great that we were able to go out and express ourselves in the way that we wanted to.
“We didn’t go away from our values as a team even though we were bitterly disappointed with the chase in the first game. This was a great chase and we’re really happy we managed to get over the line quite easily.”
Stokes batted like a man who didn’t have a care in the world, or at least whose only care was to see how many sixes he could hit before bedtime. He has done this several times before, most famously against South Africa when charging to his career best 258 in a Test match. This was just the same as he swung hard and harder and connected with a ball that flew further and further into the stands, especially off the spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya who went for a combined 156 runs. Ouch.
It could have been all so different had the TV umpire taken a different view of a potential run out of Stokes when he had made just 33. Jogging back for a second run he was a little slow on grounding his bat and when Kuldeep’s throw took off the bails, there didn’t seem to be anything behind the line.
The verdict went with Stokes though, and he took full advantage to make sure that England retained their world No.1 ranking in ODI cricket. There was a handy return to England colours for left-arm quick Reece Topley.
And spare a thought for KL Rahul, who earlier made a classy 108 to set the game up perfectly for India’s big-hitters Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya to cash in.
They took England’s bowlers for 126 from the last 10 overs thanks to some powerful hitting of their own.
However, it just turned out to be too little too late.