An all-around win for India! Well, with a target of 111, it was always going to be a piece of cake for them. India has seized a 1-0 series lead because of their potent opening pair, who easily passed the target in just 20 overs. The visitors gave a full performance, while the home team suffered a heartbreaking loss.
The effort here will leave the hosts utterly disappointed. With only 110 runs scored, their bowlers were unable to truly
Contribute much. They made an effort, but this pitch did not move as much for them as it did for the Indian seamers. They were unsuccessful at the plate and failed to secure even a single wicket. They continued to bowl short and received punishment each time! England suffered a difficult loss, and as a result, Jos Bottler’s ODI captaincy got off to a bad start.
Hence in the end India won by 10 wickets and lead by 1-0 against England in the ODI series, Rohit Sharma scored 76 runs in 58 balls and hit 7 fours, and smashed 5 sixes with a strike rate of 131.03, while Shikhar Dhawan scored 31 runs in 54 balls and hit 4 boundaries with a strike rate of 57.41.
Bumrah world record
In a concerning way, Rohit’s team is coming together in preparation for two World Cups that will happen quickly.
Where does the 50-over format go? In regards to the World Champions, should that be wither? Even the reunion of England’s Class of 2019 top order could not withstand the amazing abilities of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami on a hot and muggy afternoon at the Kia Oval, who dealt Jos Buttler, in his first official match as ODI captain, a genuinely humiliating experience.
Bumrah had amassed the astounding numbers of 6 for 19, surpassing Ashish Nehra’s 6 for 23 at the 2003 World Cup as India’s best against England by the time England had been crushed for 110 in 25.2 overs (yep, this is 50 overs a side, though it will be lucky to last that across two innings). That haul included two for zero in his first three balls of the game and two for zero in his final seven balls as England’s tail was ruthlessly sawn off after a valiant but fruitless effort.
With Ben Stokes’ first-ball duck in his second over and Jos Buttler’s 30 from 32—his team’s only significant source of resistance—being taken out by a top-edged pull to deep square leg, a sucker-punch that came one ball after he had successfully picked off the last of his six fours in the same direction, Shami was more expensive but no less crucial in thwarting England’s intentions after being asked to bat first.
This was another statement performance from a team that is coming together in a menacing way ahead of two World Cups in quick succession, the T20 version in Australia in four months, and a home 50-over campaign in the new year. The performance followed India’s 2-1 series win in the T20Is, a scoreline made all the more emphatic by their quashing of a pair of “timid” England displays in the first two games.
As it had against South Africa at Lord’s in 2017 and Australia in Adelaide the following winter, two previous occasions when England’s pedal-to-the-metal approach had spectacularly failed after being asked to bat first in advantageous conditions and against a formidable seam attack. England’s collapse was foreshadowed early.
Bumrah and Shami are currently among the most formidable bowlers, even when compared to Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and others. This is also true despite the fact that Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the star of the T20I series who is only occasionally used in the longer formats, has prodigious skills.
The first over by Bumrah in particular had everything. Jason Roy was given a first-ball sighter, but two nasties in swingers—the second of which hooped spectacularly past a hard-handed drive and over the top of off stump—helped him take a wicket. One ball later, he shot the ball out further with a little less bend, sensing that Roy would likely keep coming, and it resulted in a flat-footed nick into the stumps as Roy left for his tenth ODI career duck. And the initial phase of a spectacular top-order implosion.
Joe Root came out at No. 3, rejoined by Jonny Bairstow, his companion in crime from the incredible 378-run chase from the Edgebaston Test last week. In that iconic fourth innings, the duo had been unbreakable for 269 runs over 54.3 overs. Now? They just had a two-ball stand when Root, who was inevitably seduced by the extra lift outside off, floated the nick through to Rishabh Pant and mouthed “bounce” to his teammate as he marched out for a duck, departed for a duck.
At least with the powerful Stokes yet to bowl, England had some hope at 6 for 2—after all, teams that include him never take a step back. Shami, though, had different plans. He bowled a gem of an inswinger to the left-hander in his second over, bending the ball back in from behind the wicket to catch the inside edge, allowing Pant to leap with fast feet and a ready right glove. He made three catches behind the stumps, two of which were blinders.
At 7 for 3, the scoreline resembled the collapses that have greeted Barstow’s recent debuts in Test cricket. Despite one resolute first-over-four, he was for once unable to fight back. Inswinger, outswinger, and a bulldozer on off stump were Bumrah’s three-card trick to get rid of England’s top batter, and it was masterful. Pant once more leaped deftly to his right to cling to the ball in front of the first slip.
Liam Livingstone attempted to wait it out at 17 for 4, but he was unsuccessful. The pressure increased after seven dot-ball deliveries in a row, so when he snapped for his eighth delivery and dashed down the track to swerve Bumrah, he was completely taken aback. An additional replication of England’s Adelaide debacle occurred when a precise inswinger swung behind his legs and into the base of his stumps. Suddenly, England had lost four of their top six players for ducks.
When England was 26 for 5, Buttler and Moeen Ali made an effort to recover, and as Hardik Pandya and Prasidh Krishna joined the attack, they at least succeeded in doubling the total in the following six overs. The slender fast bowler stooped low in his follow-through to sweep up a return catch for 14, but after pumping the second of his two fours over Prasidh’s extended right hand, Moeen succumbed two balls later in a similar manner. At 53 for 6, Rohit brought Shami back for the kill as a response. Within three balls of Shami’s return, Buttler too was making his way back.
At the very least, England’s tail offered a little glimmer of the fight. While Brydon Carse, David Willey, and even the real bunny, Reece Topley, outperformed their top-order counterparts, the latter with a lump through the line off Yuzvendra Chahal as England’s No. 11 managed the only six of their innings, a rarity on two counts for this hard-hitting line-up, Craig Overton was unable to match his brother Jamie’s 97 on debut in the Trent Bridge Test but did pick off two four.
Disclaimer: The insights expressed in this article are those of the author. This article was not written or edited by Empireweekly.com; it was published on July 16, 2022.
