The Indian top-order fell like nine pins as Reece Topley’s 6 for 24 helped England’s scintillating bowling performance to seal a 100-run series win, while defending a modest target in the second ODI at Lord’s on Thursday.
With parity restored in the three-match series, Sunday’s decider at Old Trafford in Manchester promises to be mouth-watering.
When the Indian bowlers put on another impressive performance to bowl England out for 246 in 49 overs, no one knew the visiting batsman would be reduced to 146 in 38.5 overs thanks to Topley’s good seam and swing bowling.
India vs England 2nd ODI Highlights
David Willey (1/27 in 9 overs), experienced Moeen Ali (1/30) and Liam Livingstone (1/4) also played their part perfectly.
Topi’s figures were the best by an Englishman in ‘The Mecca of Cricket’.
After winning the first game by 10 wickets, the Indian team had no idea that the wheel of luck would spin so fast.
With Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli And Rishabh Pant came back to the dressing room right after the first powerplay and with only 31 runs on the board, there was only one possible outcome.
Suryakumar Yadav (27), Hardik Pandya (29) and Ravindra Jadeja (29) tried their best but the scores would certainly provide a bigger picture of the plight of the Indian batsmen.
Dhawan (9 runs from 26 balls) and skipper Rohit (0 off 9 balls) looked clearly uneasy as the 6ft 5in tall Topley hit the seam and, with his height, pulled off a consistently disappointing bounce.
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Knowing that Rohit is a compulsive hooker and puller, Topley kept it full and delivered a distinctive left-handed batsman with an angle that found the Indian captain swooping down the front.
Dhawan, whose stay on the wicket was as painful as Rohit’s, tickled Jos Buttler in the leg-side.
Kohli’s quick 22-second move in the Lord’s Long Room was brilliantly filmed by the broadcasters as he was seen raising his collar as he entered the field of play.
What followed was three picturesque shots – an off-drive, an on-drive and a cover drive – all out of the top drawer, but the tendency to play everything on the front-foot led to his downfall.
Left-arm pacer Willie angled one on the off-stump and once again to the east India The captain misjudged the length with the trigger of his front leg. The resulting nick was happily accepted behind the stumps by Captain Butler.
Rishabh Pant (0) in the blue Indian jersey has often been a lighter shade of what he is in white flannel. A full toss was caught by seamer Brydon Carrs to the mid-on fielder. It was 31 for 4 and suddenly the target of 247 seemed huge.
Suryakumar Yadav (27 off 29 balls) started right where he left off during that incredible T20 century in Nottingham.
Along with Pandya, he added 42 runs before Topley, coming for his second spell, gave an extra bounce and forced the batsman to go for a non-existent cut shot when there was bare minimum room for execution. .
Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal’s clever variations looked to complement Hardik Pandya’s steady pace medium bowling as India bundled out England for 246 in 49 overs.
However, it was Moeen Ali (47 off 64 balls) who took the attack back into the opposition camp with his audacious hook and pulled off sixes with a slog sweep as England’s total had some semblance of respectability, as the apprehensive The top order promised a lot, but delivered. little.
Moeen and David Willey (41 off 49 balls) put on 62 runs for the seventh wicket to help chase down the target of 250.
On a two-pace track, Chahal (10-0-47-4) was brilliant at managing his length while giving plenty of air to the ball as he got rid of England’s ‘Big Three’ – Jonny Bairstow (38), Joe Root. (11) and Ben Stokes (21) – and then got Moeen out only when he looked dangerous.
At the other end, Pandya (6-0-28-2), who is slowly finding his bowling rhythm back, picked up the wickets of Jason Roy (23) and Liam Livingstone (33) and Rohit Sharma scored runs. – Flow stopped. Had another good day at the office, maneuvering his six-man attack.
Mohammed Shami (10-0-48-1) was as regal as ever as he dismissed rival skipper Jos Buttler (4) with a sharp inswinger that came into the tail late.
Jasprit Bumrah (10-1-49-2) and Shami were once again in the zone, although it was not as big a defeat for England as compared to the opening game.
It was during the middle overs that Chahal was excellent as he controlled the white kookaburra like a yo-yo, pushing the delivery fuller and at times shortening the length.
The balls were all different lengths to dismiss Bairstow, Root and Stokes, while Moeen Ali, towards fag-end, was hit from the line of delivery.
But at the end of it all it all came to naught.
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