The Lord’s pitch wasn’t as helpful for the bowlers as the one at The Oval during Tuesday’s first ODI, but the England quicks still managed to hit India hard during the second match on Thursday. Yuzvendra Chahal cast his spell to finish with figures of 4/47 that helped India restrict England to 246 in 49 overs after they won the toss again and opted to bowl.
But though the target initially appeared chase-able, India struggled from the very beginning of their reply. Led by left-arm pacer Reece Topley, who bowled an impeccable length right through to finish with magnificent figures of 6/24, England bundled India out for 146 in 38.5 overs to win the second ODI by a massive 100 runs and square the series.
Topley and his fellow leftarm quick, David Willey, along with Brydon Carse combined well to leave India reeling at 31 for 4 in the 12th over. Topley brought one in to trap Rohit lbw before he had Shikhar Dhawan caught down the leg side. With the openers dismissed cheaply, the onus was on Virat Kohli to bail the side out of trouble. Fit after missing the opening game due to a mild groin strain, Kohli began impressively, hitting three quality boundaries off Topley.
But once again, that probing line outside off-stump by Willey bore fruit for England, resulting in a typical Virat Kohli dismissal as the former India captain was out caught behind. Worse followed for India as Rishabh Pant, promoted at No.4, fell off a full toss from Carse. Just as Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya were looking to rebuild the innings, an extra bit of bounce from Topley broke their partnership.
The left-arm quick, in his second spell, picked up the crucial wicket of Suryakumar before polishing off India’s tail. Following Suryakumar’s departure, it was up to Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to take India home. But Moeen, after contributing a vital 47 with the bat, struck to remove Pandya, who was caught in the deep.
Soon after, Jadeja was cleaned up by part-timer Liam Livingstone and it was practically all over for India then. India’s frailties in challenging batting conditions were exposed once again, something that just doesn’t bode well for the team. Earlier, Chahal made superb use of flight as well as loop to dismiss Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali. That stalled England’s progress after they had reached 72 for 1 in the 15th over. Moeen (47) and Willey (41), who was dropped on 1 by Prasidh Krishna, showed some application during their 62-run sixth-wicket stand that helped England past 200.
