Twitter Reactions: India labour to 256 on a sluggish Leeds wicket

Kohli was the best batter as he scored 71 while Adil Rashid was the pick of the bowlers with a three-wicket haul.

By Ankit Mishra

View : 1.6K

4 Min Read

England v India - 3rd ODI: Royal London One-Day Series
info
Virat Kohli. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Eoin Morgan’s decision to bat first proved the right wisdom in the 2nd ODI at Lord’s thus when he asked Team India to bowl in Headingley most experts and commentators thought Morgan knew what he was doing. However, the wicket was slow and sluggish right through and the ball was doing something both for the quicks and the slower bowlers. All the English bowlers stuck to their plans and didn’t give away anything easy, especially the spinners. As a result, all the famed Indian batting lineup managed was 256/8 in 50 overs.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan who enjoy when the ball comes onto the bat with pace didn’t find it easy to get going. While Dhawan did play his shots from the start Rohit found the going particularly tough. He struggled to even rotate the strike as David Willey and Mark Wood kept things really tight. Rohit’s stay ended on the 18th ball having scored just 2 runs.

Dhawan played a pretty mature knock understanding the difficulties the wicket created for the batsmen. He had a half century partnership with skipper Kohli. The duo got Team India close to the 100-run mark but Dhawan was unfortunately run out by Ben Stokes on 44. Kohli carried on with Dinesh Karthik who was included for the No.4 spot ahead of KL Rahul played with some positive intent to start with. An expansive drive against Adil Rashid cost Karthik his wicket as it deflected back onto his stumps.

Suresh Raina lasted just four balls and scored one before being caught at leg-slip by Joe Root off Rashid again. Kohli was bamboozled by Rashid with a leg-spinner that turned sharp. He scored 71 but failed to read one that spun in front of his face and took his off-stump. Hardik Pandya tried to hang in there but got out for a run-a-ball 21 and was dismissed before causing any damage in the death.

MS Dhoni struggled for 66 balls for his 42 and was dismissed by Willey in his second spell with one that angled away from him. The veteran who had faced a lot of criticism for the way he paced his innings at Lord’s couldn’t change it in the last ODI either.

Late charge from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur took the team total beyond the 250-run mark. Thakur, in particular, was the only Indian batsman who hit a six in the innings, he hit a couple and those are the two they have hit in the last couple of games.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to the Indian batting innings:

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

googletelegraminstagramwhatsappyoutubethreadstwitter

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store
England