Golden oldies win series for India
Yuvraj, Dhoni score strokefilled tons before bowlers hold their nerve to secure a narrow win
CUTTACK: England skipper Eoin Morgan led the charge once opener Jason Roy and Joe Root set up the chase with a century partnership. Morgan got to his century off 80 balls with six fours and five sixes.
Liam Plunkett hung in with him till 28 was needed off 10 balls, which, given the counterattack England staged, seemed perfectly gettable.
That was when a run out tilted the match back in India’s favour.
BACKING TOO FAR
Morgan was dismissed at the non-striker’s end after he backed up quite a bit. England needed 22 off the final over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but there were no heroics from the visitors.
The highlight of India’s bowling was three crucial wickets by R Ashwin. England did not help themselves, losing wickets at critical junctures.
Fans were yet to settle down when India skipper Virat Kohli was walking back to the pavilion disappointed. Yuvraj Singh walked in. India were 22 for two in the third over. Into the fifth over, the other 35-year-old in this crop of young India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, joined the lefthander in the middle.
A phase of lull followed. Ball, not Jake though, dominated the bat as India began their arduous task of rebuilding. England’s Chris Woakes was right on the money having bagged all the three wickets to fall. But then India’s ‘golden oldies’ had other designs in store.
They did rebuild and then dominated the proceedings, turning the match on its head. Something that young India, read Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav, did in Pune, the verterans bettered it in Cuttack. In the process, Dhoni and Yuvraj stitched together a partnership of 256 runs for the fourth wicket and India posted a healthy 381 for six. Yuvraj Singh scored 150 off 127 balls with 21 fours and three sixes. This was his 14th ODI hundred, his highest ever ODI score bettering his 139 against Australia in Sydney in 2004. This, coming from someone, who before this series, last played an ODI in 2013 against South Africa at the Centurion.
Dhoni brought up his 10th ODI hundred. His 134 came off 122 balls with 10 fours and six sixes. This was the former India skipper’s first ODI century after a gap of four years.
Bulk of the credit for this match-winning partnership should go to Dhoni. He took strike to Chris Woakes and kept offering him the dead bat. Yuvraj Singh, initially finding it difficult to gauge the pace of the wicket.