India were cruising along nicely, batting first in the 2nd ODI against England in Cardiff. The score read 178/3 with Virat Kohli well set and had a reliable partner in Shreyas Iyer, who was also batting smoothly, before Jofra Archer returned and got the breakthrough by picking Kohli. From 178/4, India were bundled out for just 233 runs in 44 overs.
Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Kaif was critical of India’s inability to bat through their quota of 50 overs.
“The first thing we learnt from our seniors about ODIs was that we have to bat for 50 overs. If you score 20-30 runs after playing those overs, then that’s another thing, but you have to play the full 50 overs,” Kaif said while speaking on Cricbuzz.
“Nowadays, we talk about batting depth; we had batting till No.8 today. India will be disappointed that they couldn’t bat the full 50 overs,” Kaif added.
“Quite disappointing, to be honest with you. We thought 300, 310 would be a good total after 25 overs. We were at a good position. But, we lost too many wickets in the middle overs. I mean, our tailenders are not the best batsmen. But I think we expected a bit more from our lower middle order and we were not able to capitalize on the start that we got. But hopefully, the next time we get there, we’ll try to build some small partnerships and take it on from there,” Shubman Gill said after the game.
Rohit Sharma and Gill put up an opening stand of 44 off 46 balls which was followed by a 60-run stand which came in just 61 balls between Rohit and Virat Kohli. Rohit, however, ended up being stranded towards the end of the stand, which is eventually how it ended up being broken. After six deliveries from Sam Curran went without a single, he was also unable to negotiate Adil Rashid. His misery was ended by Will Jacks when his nothing short of a lap sweep turned into a top edge dolly for Jos Buttler.
Kohli, on the other hand, looked as confident as ever as he continued his rich vein of form in ODIs. While Ishan Kishan fell soon after Rohit, Kohli found another steady partner in Shreyas Iyer. The pair put up a 67-run stand for the fourth wicket which came in as many balls before Kohli fell to Jofra Archer on 65 off 66 balls.
Iyer was then left to bat with the tail with India’s lower middle-order failing to make any meaningful contributions. Apart from Iyer, it was Jasprit Bumrah who provided the goods towards the end of the Indian innings, smashing an unbeaten 20 in 13 balls.
