FANTASTIC FOUR
Quartet a big hit as they keep England on top of the world
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 overhauled India’s seemingly imposing 336-6 with 39 balls to spare.
Behind them, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone, on his one-day international debut, showed that, even without skipper Eoin Morgan, the sixhitting party never stops.
No fewer than 20 sixes were hit between the four of them as they set up a six-wicket victory.
No total is safe when this England juggernaut gets moving. It was 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 99 coming from just 52 balls.
Stokes, who hit 10 of the sixes, said: “We always go out and play as positively as we can. It is great that we were able to go out and express ourselves in the way 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. It was a great chase and we’re really happy we managed to get over the line quite easily.”
Stokes, right, batted like his only care was to see how many sixes he could hit before bedtime.
He has done this several times before, famously against South Africa when charging to a career-best 258 in a Test. This was just the same as he swung hard and harder. The ball flew further and further into the stands, especially off spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya, who between them went for 156 runs in 16 overs. It could have been all so different had the TV umpire given a potential run out of Stokes when he had made 31. Jogging back for a second run he was slow to ground his bat and when Kuldeep’s throw hit the stumps, none of Stokes’ bat looked behind the line. The verdict went with Stokes, though, and he took full advantage to make sure England retained their World No1 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 made a classy 108 to set the game up for India’s big-hitters Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya. They took England’s bowlers for 126 from the last 10 overs thanks to some powerful hitting of their own, but it turned out to be too little to trouble the tourists.