England vs India, 2nd ODI - Who Said What

England played the conditions perfectly at Lord’s by opting to bat first after winning the toss. They posted a daunting total of 322 runs courtesy of a splendid century from Joe Root and an attacking knock from David Willey in the death overs. The target proved to be too much for the visitors as they failed to calculate the chase. The spinners were excellent for the hosts as their wily spells helped them seal the game by 86 runs.

Earlier in the day, Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow provided the team with yet another good start in the powerplay. But the introduction of Kuldeep Yadav, much like the first ODI, brought two wickets and the fears of collapse started doing the rounds across the Home of Cricket. Morgan and Root then played cleverly to bail the team out of the trouble. The former was enterprising during his stay in the middle and scored a brilliant half-century.

Root supported him well while churning out runs quickly through singles and doubles. However, the wicket of Morgan triggered a collapse again as they were reduced to 239/6 from 189/2 within a span of 10 overs. But Willey had other ideas in his mind as he pummeled the poor death bowling of the Indian team. Root continued to do what he did until the end and registered his 12th ODI ton.

The chase was always going to be tough on a track which was getting slower and the spinners of England bowled beautifully. Adil Rashi and Moeen Ali concentrated on bowling wily lines and lengths and weren’t perturbed with a prospering partnership of Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli. The latter being pinned in front by Ali proved to be the game-changing moment as the runs literally stopped after the fall of his wicket.

Raina also perished for 46 as the pressure mounted with the ever-increasing required run-rate. There was a ray of hope until MS Dhoni, was out in the middle but the veteran played a strange knock of 37 runs off 59 balls when 10 runs an over was needed to win the game.

In the end, England easily won the game by 86 runs and levelled the series handsomely. Liam Plunkett took 4 wickets during his spell but the credit of the victory has to go to Root and Rashid-Moeen duo. The tweakers conceded 80 runs in 20 overs together and scalped 3 wickets which won the game for them eventually in the second innings.

Man of the Match, Joe Root said:

(On getting back to form) I’ve always felt good this summer in practice, have done the right things and tried not to over-confuse things. Thankfully, it came off well today.

(On England’s problem of plenty forcing him into a hole) It’s a good problem to have, isn’t it? The way we have played is excellent over the last few years and it’s nice to contribute. Important thing is that we are playing well and guys in front of me are doing well. It’s been fabulous to be a part of this time.

Throughout this game, we set it up nicely, David at the end and Morgs, also the start we got. We bowled well, even if we got the better of the conditions but it was outstanding. We were ruthless and that’s what you need to be against a team like India.

You’ve seen that we learnt from our mistakes in the T20I series and we’ve done that today as well. He did take wickets but we tried to ensure that he didn’t just bowl at us. Tried to rotate strike. It’s important in ODI cricket to stay on top and see that no one bowler is allowed to dominate in his 10 overs.

England captain, Eoin Morgan said:

I thought we bounced back really well, similar to the T20I series. Learned from the first game and improved. Challenges against spin on a similar surface, if not a tougher one. Joe was excellent and the boys upfront were good too.

The bowlers put on a clinical performance as well. Well, it worked out. It’s my home ground and it’s good that it paid off. I would have done it on any other game.

(On Root’s class on tough pitches) The way he accumulates an innings and sets up the backbone of our innings. He’s the glue of our batting. (On Willey’s cameo) His batting has progressed this summer and it has had an effect on his bowling as well. His approach with the ball against top batsmen early on was impressive as well.

Hopefully it should be. It’s a ground we enjoy playing at, we get great support there. Hopefully we can produce a performance closer to today’s.

India captain, Virat Kohli said:

(On the loss) I think we started off well with the bat, it was a really good wicket to play on throughout the course of the game. Did slow up in the second half but when we lost wickets early, that’s where we lost it hurt us a bit.

You need wickets in hand during such chases, so when you lose early wickets, it’s tough to recover. Wicket got slower but credit to their bowlers for executing their plans.

These are games where you test the character of the guys. Siddarth is new and Umesh is coming back after a while. We expect them to do the job, obviously Bumrah and Bhuvi have done it for long but it’s nice to test the character of the guys.

Important for the guys to bounce back. Crucial to back the guys ahead. We’ve played good cricket so far, today was just a bad day. Those three wickets early on played a massive part. Both Moeen and Rashid sensed the opportunity, they are good bowlers and created pressure. If we hadn’t lost early wickets, we might have been able to attack them more.

(On MS’ innings) This thing comes up whenever he (Dhoni) isn’t able to play the way he wants. People just wait to jump on him. When it works, they call him the best finisher and if it doesn’t, they jump on him. Today was a bad day for all of us, not just him. He is experienced and the idea was to take it deep. You don’t want to lose by 150-160 runs.

(On bouncing back from defeats on this tour) Yes, the series is really well poised. Even after Cardiff, we remained calm and bounced back. We expect a team like England to bounce back.

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