As the two month tour of England comes near the end, it was time for the ODI series to take center stage. After winning the Test series and T20I Series by 3-1 and 3-2 respectively, India aimed to make it clean sweep of series as they hosted England in the 3 match ODI Series. This match,along with the other two ODI will take place Maharashtra Cricket Association in Pune with no spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions.
England won the toss and elected to bowl first. Sam Billings, Tom Curran and Moeen Ali came into the team replacing Dawid Malan, Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan. For India, Krunal Pandya and Prasidh Krishna made their debut, while KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Kuldeep Yadav returned to the eleven for India.
India used one of their old opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. India made a slow start as they played out cautiously, trying to learn the pitch.
As Sharma and Dhawan tried to play out a little aggressively, Sharma lost his wicket. He tried to slash it wide but the ball swinged away after bouncing, which resulted in Sharma getting and edge and being caught out at the back.
Shikhar Dhawan who had been out of form lately, played out a fine innings and soon completed his fifty. Once again in the tour, Kohli started to play second fiddle as Dhawan played long shots to boost up the run rate.
At the end of the 30th over, India's score was 159/1 with both Dhawan and Kohli were looking good. After the duo completed the 100 run parternship for the second Wicket, Virat Kohli was dismissed. He tried to flick it over midwicket, which is one of his favorite shot but didn't got the timing he wanted and played it straight to Mark Wood. Kohli departed for 56 off 60 balls as the wait for his 71st Century continues.
After Kohli's Wicket, the runrate started to drop for India. They then lost three quick wickets as Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan and Hardik Pandya were sent back to pavilion. Dhawan had to walk back at 98 as he was caught out by a great catch by Morgan. He tried to pull the ball with a short arm jab and was unlucky as a inch or two away would have seen the ball go past Morgan and Completed his ton.
With these three quick Wickets, India were reduced to 205/5 in 41 overs with KL Rahul and Krunal Pandya in the middle. Rahul had been struggling in the T20I series and this was the first match of K Pandya.
However both showed why there are so valuable. The duo staged up a fantastic 112 run stand as they took India's score to 317/5 in 50 overs. Rahul once again proved why form is temporary and class is permanent. He remained unbeaten at 62 from 43 balls with three fours and three sixes.
Whereas for Krunal Pandya, he had already showed what he can do during his IPL Career with Mumbai Indians. The elder Pandya put up a maiden fifty to his name as he remained too unbeaten at 58 from 37 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes. After completing his fifty, he would raise his bat towards the sky in tribute to his late father. In the break both Pandya brothers were seen emotional as Krunal dedicated his knock to their father.
For England, Jason Roy and Johnny Bairstow opened the innings. If England's start in the previous game(5th T20I) against India was something, this was even better. The duo decided to attack from the beginning and kept on playing at the speed of T20.
The aggressive gameplay from England openers saw them cross the score of 100 in just 10 overs as Johnny Bairstow soon wrapped up another fifty. With the IPL on horizon, Sunrises Hyderabad fans would be hoping to see more of that from him.
The duo added 130 runs in just 14 overs as the match looked to be on the verge of being one sided. In the 15th over, Kohli brought Debutant Prasidh Krishna back into the attack....
.... And the move paved off as the partnership of 135 was finally broken. Krishna dismissed Jason Roy as he was caught out by Substitute SuryaKumar Yadav as it turned out to be Deja Vu for Roy who was dismissed in the 40's once again. The
Krishna's destructed spell continued as in the next over, he dismissed Ben Stokes. The Englishman tried to drive it but played it straight to the man at short cover.
After that England started to take a cautious approach. With the game still in their hand, Shardul Thakur was brought into the bowling attack by Virat Kohli. Thakur delivered once again as he got the most important wicket of Johnny Bairstow. At the score of 94, Bairstow tried to complete his ton in style and pull it high over midwicket. He though was unable to control his shot and found Kuldeep Yadav as he departed in the 90s.
As of late, Shardul Thakur has taken a habit of picking up two Wickets in one over. In the 25th over, he got the better of Eoin Morgan by a short ball and then the dangerous Jos Buttler through LBW as England soon found themselves at 176/5 from 135/0.
Debutant Krishna would pick up his third wicket, after Sam Billings departed after pushing the ball straight to Virat Kohli at covers. With Billings gone the score was 217/6 in 32.1 overs as England still needed 101 runs with 17.5 overs still to go but only had 4 wickets left.
In reality, after the first wicket England once again collapsed with wickets falling at regular intervals. The middle order has not formed that well as the World Champions would have hoped for.
With Moeen Ali dismissal, Tom Curran would join his brother Sam Curran in the middle as the other set of brothers in today's game took centre stage. Their stay didn't last long as Sam was then sent back to the dressing room by Krunal Pandya after he tried to loft it over resulting in Krunal's first wicket of his International Career.
In the end England were bowled out for 251 in 42.1 overs as India won by 66 runs. Prasidh Krishna picked up 4 Wickets on debut as he finished with figures of 4-54 in 8.1 overs as India take a 1-0 lead in the series.
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