Ben goes big, Bairstow bigger
England demolish India to level ODI series 1-1 after their top three make short work of huge target
PUNE: India had scored 112 runs in their first 25 overs, and got exactly twice as much (224) in the next half of their innings. Yet, England got to India’s 337run target with 39 balls to spare.
That’s how brutal the onslaught was by England, especially centurion Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes, who missed being a centurion by one run.
There isn’t as much at stake in the ongoing series in the larger scheme of things. But these three ODIs—a battle of different approaches and doctrines—were always going to be an examination of whether matches could still be won with an old-school approach.
World champions England have their answer ready: they went down swinging in the first game, but are back in the series with the same approach.
“We were happy that we didn’t go away from our values as a team (after the loss in the first ODI),” as Stokes would say later. “We were always going to go with same intent.”
India hit 14 sixes in their innings, England slammed 20. If you thought T20 matches were won this way, the world champs are proving that the one-day format has changed a long way too. India had hit 10 boundaries in their first 25 overs.
In comparison, by the time the visitors’s opening partnership was broken, Jason Roy and Bairstow had already raced to 16 boundaries within their first 16 overs. To break that stand, it took a piece of fielding magic from Rohit Sharma in the inner circle.
England had, however, already posted 110 runs when Roy was run out for 55. In the absence of Alex Hales (for off field reasons), Roy and Bairstow have built 13 century plus stands, all while batting with the same attacking approach. Ben Stokes, who came in to bat at No.3, was also fully invested in the team’s game-plan and straightaway went for the big hits.
India could have had Stokes run out on 33 thanks to a Kuldeep Yadav direct-hit from the deep. But he was given the third umpire’s benefit of the doubt, and then it was all one way, six-smacking traffic.
The wheels truly came off for India when they conceded 63 runs in the space of three overs between the 33rd and the 35th. When Stokes got out two balls later on 99 (trying to hook Bhuvneshwar Kumar out of the ground), 76 of his runs had come in boundaries with 10 sixes.
Yes, 10 hits over the ropes. It gets even more incredible—84 of his 99 runs came against 33 balls of Indian spin. Between the two, Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya gave away 156 runs in 16 overs.
Bairstow, at the other end, didn’t slow down either. There were no theatrics when he brought up his 11th ODI hundred, after having cleared his front leg and walloped Yadav for six over deep midwicket.
With every boundary, Bairstow and Stokes punched the Indian bowling to submission.
But there was more than a glimmer of hope for India when Prasidh Krishna—by far India’s best bowler on the night and the country’s best find in this series—dismissed Bairstow (for 124) and Jos Buttler (for a duck) in the space of one over— the 37th of the innings.
But then debutant Liam Livingstone, who smashed Bhuvneshwar for two consecutive sixes to open the 40th over, and T20 specialist Dawid Malan saw the team through with more big hits.
Rahul’s century
India approached the game rather differently. KL Rahul truly turned his early season form around with a well-paced 108 (from 114 balls), but as it turned out it was grossly insufficient on the day.
Just when one thought Rahul was the designated wicketkeeper batsman in ODI cricket, India decided to hand the gloves back to Rishabh Pant.
Before this match, Pant was averaging 26.71 in 16 matches. But the time he was dismissed for 77 (40 balls), he had corrected those stats for good. Pant and Rahul powered together a 113-run partnership to produce 122 runs in the last 10 overs.
It was a starkly different gear of run-making to when Rahul first walked in to bat in the 9th over, after India had lost both their openers.
Along with captain Virat Kohli, he stitched together a century stand that was dotted with as many as 64 singles. With sixes being the main ingredient of England’s twin hundred plus stands for their first and second wickets, India was never going to stand a chance.
Brief scores: India 336/6 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 108, Rishabh Pant 77, Virat Kohli 66; Reece Topley 2/50, Tom Curran 2/83) lost to England 337/4 in 43.3 overs (Jonny Bairstow 124, Ben Stokes 99, Jason Roy 55; Prasidh Krishna 2/58) by six wickets.