England vs India, 1st ODI - Who Said What

India continued to rule the 50-overs format in England as they thrashed the home side by 8 wickets in the first ODI of the three-match series. Kuldeep Yadav was the architect of the victory for the visitors as he registered his career-best figures by bamboozling England batsmen with his mystery spin. Rohit Sharma then piled on the agony for them by scoring an authoritative ton in the not so steep chase later in the game.

England, after being invited to bat first on a flat deck, started well as their openers added 71 runs in 10 overs. But then the chinaman came into the attack which opened the floodgates. Jason Roy was the first of the six wickets he picked and left the crowd stunned. He was turning the ball on a pitch which has historically been a graveyard for the bowlers.

He kept on picking the wickets during his 10-over spell which never allowed the hosts to get away despite the partnership between Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler. The latter made a half-century but got out when his team needed him the most. His wicket ended their hopes of getting to 300 as England were bowled out for 268 in the last over of their innings. Kuldeep ended his spell with the magical figures of 6/25 which are the best figures for a left-arm spinner in ODIs ever.

The chase, however, was the easiest part of the game for India. They are the masters of gunning down the totals and when Virat Kohli and Rohit get together, they just play with the bowling attack. The duo did the same at the Trent Bridge and sealed the deal with a 167-run stand for the second wicket. While Rohit slammed his 18th ton in ODIs, Kohli missed out but not before making 75 runs like a stroll in the park.

Men in Blue won the game with more than 9 overs to spare as Rohit Sharma fittingly stayed unbeaten until the end on 137.

Man of the Match, Kuldeep Yadav said:

For me it is a big day. I started off well in the first few overs. Luckily I got a couple of wickets in the first two overs. For me it does not matter if the ground is small.

Initially I thought there was a lot of turn and after the first over, I knew I was in the game. If you are bowling in the right areas and you are using the variations perfectly, then it is pretty hard for the batsmen. I hope they will come back hard at us in the next game. I am hoping for a Test call.

India captain, Virat Kohli said:

As clinical as it can be. We knew it was a good wicket to bat on. Those wrist spinners in the middle overs are going to be tricky. Kuldeep was outstanding. I don’t think I have seen a better spell in ODIs of late. We made a tactical decision looking at the dimensions of the ground.

These two wrist spinners have been making the difference since they have come in. They did it in South Africa. Anything is possible with the selections for Tests. The focus now is winning on the next two games. Especially the next game as the series is on the line.

The weather has been lovely. The crowd support has been excellent. The tour is really long and we need to keep doing well.

England captain, Eoin Morgan said:

Certainly not our best day out here. Full credit to India as they completely outplayed us. Kuldeep had a very good day at the office. Playing spin against India is one challenge that hopefully we will keep improving upon.

But today we were well off the mark. I think both the games there has been more turn than on the grounds that we have played on and that is one thing probably that we have identified.

I think Lord’s will be different as it won’t offer a great deal of turn. But certainly he (Kuldeep) extracted more turn out of this than any other spinner. We need to improve as a side.

The seamers on this wicket come on to the bat on this wicket and hence the high scoring nature of the ground. We need to expose our areas of weakness before the WC and this seems to be one of them. And because it is a rare chance to be coming up against two wrist spinners. During the winter, we tour to Windies and Sri Lanka and this will be good practice for those series’.

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