Joe Root masterfully anchored England’s chase as the hosts beat India by six wickets in the second ODI in Cardiff on Thursday. England have thus levelled the three-match series 1-1 and set up a tantalising series decider in the third and final match that will be played at Lord’s on Sunday.
On what turned out to be a tricky pitch, India set England a target of 234 to chase and the hosts had to grind it out. Opener Ben Duckett fell for a golden duck first ball of the innings itself to Jasprit Bumrah and his partner Jacob Bethell fell in the fourth over after scoring just four runs.
Captain Harry Brook, Sam Curran and Jos Buttler all then put up useful partnerships with Root before Will Jacks put up 72 runs for the fifth wicket with him and put England on their way to victory. Jacks fell in the 40th over after which Gus Atkinson came in and expedited England’s chase. He ended up dominating strike towards the end of the match and scored the winning runs, thus leaving Root rooted on 99 off 133 balls.
Earlier, India made a good start to their innings before faultering in the middle overs. Rohit Sharma and captain Shubman 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.
