London: Ben Duckett made mincemeat of an inexperienced Indian bowling attack with a fabulous 141 as England posted a mammoth 387 for 3 in the series-deciding third ODI, riding on a 192-run opening stand between the centurion and Jacob Bethell Sunday.
Jasprit Bumrah’s absence due to an impact injury on his left knee was certainly a blow for India and that proved to be telling for the visitors.
The four-pronged pace attack comprising Prasidh Krishna (269 in 10 overs), Arshdeep Singh (072 in 10 overs), Prince Yadav (179 on 10 overs) and Gurnoor Brar (097 in 10 overs), with a cumulative experience of 51 ODIs, lacked both skill and experience against an in-form batting line-up.
Duckett and Bethell (91 off 93 balls) were fantastic in terms of planning and execution. The batting powerplay of first 10 overs yielded 58 runs but the wheels came off between overs 11 to 30 when they literally ran the bowlers ragged.
With head coach Gautam Gambhir using Kuldeep Yadav in only 38 games out of a total 103 matches (across three formats) since his appointment, the lack of a second spinner save Axar Patel (061 in 10 overs) did hurt India.
While Duckett hit 18 boundaries in all apart from a six, Bethell, who looked comparatively more fluent at the onset, hit 11 fours and a six, before being holed out in the deep off Prasidh Krishna’s bowling.
Joe Root (74 no off 48 balls) continued his golden run of form with another half-century — his third in three games — to take the total past 350-run mark. Jos Buttler (41 no off 13 balls) also joined in the fun as Brar got a harsh lesson in international cricket, going for almost 100 runs.
At the onset, it didn’t help matters that rookie Prince, bowling up the famous Lord’s slope, struggled with his length as Bethell pulled him for a six over deep mid-wicket and then slapped him in the gap between deep mid-wicket and mid-on for a boundary.
The rusty Arshdeep Singh didn’t hold his line while Prasidh Krishna, despite beating Bethell’s bat on a number of occasions, also bowled the odd loose delivery.
However, Bethell did well to complete his half-century off 51 balls while England reached the team total of 100 by the 16th over. By that time, Indian bowlers have already conceded 15 boundaries and the lines were horribly wrong, allowing the opening pair to nicely settle into a rhythm. In all, they conceded 42 boundaries and six sixes.
It also established the fact that all the other Indian pacers look good when the brilliant Bumrah is at work at one end and that effectiveness vanishes once he is absent. One saw that in the T20Is and now in ODIs too.