Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni roll back the years in a series-clinching effort as India bounce back from 25/3 to post 381 before restricting England to 366.
Eoin Morgan was taking the fight to India. The out-of-form England captain picked this match to recapture his attacking mojo and was clearing the ropes for fun. The equation came down to 108 in the last nine overs with Morgan and Moeen Ali striking the ball cleanly. India had bowled out R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and suddenly, pressure started to mount.
MS Dhoni became proactive behind the stumps, setting the fields and sending instructions. Virat Kohli was happy to play second fiddle. Bhuvneshwar Kumar induced a mistimed shot from Ali. The ball went high in the air, India’s best fielder, Jadeja, settled underneath it at long-on, but the catch slipped through his hands. Dew had made the ball slippery.
Giving Kedar Jadhav the 43rd over was always fraught with danger. But India barely had other options. The part-time offie conceded 15. Then again, England had been chasing the unchaseable. Scoreboard pressure proved to be too much for the visitors to handle, even on a highway-like Barabati surface. Ali and Chris Woakes departed in quick successions. Morgan breezed to an 81-ball 102 but was run out in the penultimate over. That was that. India narrowly survived despite posting 381 in 50 overs. The 15-run win gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series. The final game at Eden Gardens on Sunday has now become a dead rubber.
The new era of youth temporarily took a back seat in Cuttack on Thursday. Old guards shone brighter – Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni for India, and Morgan for England. The Indian duo allowed the older fans to relive their emotions. Morgan showed he could still be an impact player for his team.
Yuvraj and Dhoni, however, won the match for India.
KL Rahul is yet to hit the ground running as an ODI opener. Woakes got him with a good length delivery that came in with the angle and took the outside edge to second slip. Five balls later, the England fast bowler removed Kohli to another catch to Ben Stokes at the same position.
Indian batting had been mostly about their new shorter formats captain over the past 12-odd months.
Here, he was out after hitting two crisp boundaries and the team was under pressure at 22 for two, after being sent in by England.
It soon became 25 for three as Shikhar Dhawan dragged a widish one onto the stumps. Yuvraj and Dhoni started the resurrection job.
Dhoni has been in such situations many times. He relishes the opportunity to build his innings. Yuvraj came into this fixture with question marks hanging over his form and effectiveness. Dhoni was aiming to stay till the end. Onus was on the left-hander to throw down the gauntlet.
Breaking the shackles
Jake Ball, predetermined to overuse the short ball, helped Yuvraj break the shackles. He bowled to Yuvraj’s pads and was flicked to the deep square leg fence. The England seamer bowled even shorter and conceded another four. Ball over-corrected with a half-volley and Yuvraj flicked his wrists to take another boundary.
Dhoni played out two maidens and looked unperturbed. Maybe, he was trying to keep Yuvraj out of Woakes’ reach. Morgan missed a trick by not persisting with his best bowler for one more over and from that point onwards, it became an easy ride for India.
The old men were brilliantly complementing each other and a full house at Barabati revelled. When Yuvraj strides forward and lifts a fast bowler over the arc between point and mid-off, you know he is back in his element. Stokes presented him with an opportunity to play his favourite shot and a six ensued. Yuvraj was going at run-a-ball. Dhoni picked up the pace after reaching his half-century. A half-chance off Plunkett on 43 was his only blemish. His partner was flawless throughout.
A four off Plunkett took Yuvraj to 99. A single through square leg gave him his first ODI hundred – 14th overall – since 2011. The reaction was a thanks to the Almighty and some chest thumping. He has gone through enough pain of late. His moment in the sun brought plenty of accolades even from England (and also Australia, from where Kevin Pietersen tweeted).
Yuvraj finally departed for 150 off 127 balls. This was after adding 256 runs for the fourth wicket with his erstwhile skipper. The combined age of the two veterans was 70. Together they proved age is just a number.
Dhoni got a little frustrated, when his hit came in contact with the spider-cam. Moments later, he broke into a smile and sent the next delivery from Woakes about six rows back over long-on. A single took him to his 10th ODI hundred. His second 50 came off 39 balls. He finished with a strike rate of 109.83.
India scored 94 runs between the 30th and 40th overs. Between 40 and 45 they added 47 before throwing the kitchen sink in the final five. Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja – all scored at strike rates over 200. India’s 381 for six was their second-highest total against England behind 387 for five at Rajkot in 2008.
Fair play to Morgan, Ali, Jason Roy and Joe Root, but the series was done and dusted before the dinner break.
– MS Dhoni became first Indian and fifth batsman overall to hit 200 or more sixes in ODIs. The third six off Chris Woakes was 200th in 248 innings for the former Indian skipper. Sachin Tendulkar’s 195 sixes in 452 innings of 463 matches was the previous highest for India.
– Yuvraj Singh (150) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (134) was the second pair to score centuries in the same innings, both aged 35 plus. Before this, Tillakaratne Dilshan (161 not out) and Kumara Sangakkara (105 not out) did the same against Bangladesh at Melbourne on February 26,2015.
– Number of totals against England that are more than India’s 381/6 in Cuttack. The highest is NZ’s 398/5 at The Oval in 2015, followed by India’s 387/5 in Rajkot in 2008-09. This was India’s 23rd total which was in excess of 350 or more in ODIs, the most by any team.
– Yuvraj bettered his own record of the highest individual score for India vs England in ODIs by scoring 150. The previous best score was 138 at Rajkot in 2008.
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