London: Indian bowlers led by the diminutive leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (4/47) came to the party to restrict England to 246 all out in 49 overs in the second ODI at the Lord’s here Thursday. After Rohit Sharma had put the opposition in, the bowlers bowled to a plan to restrict the England batters on a pitch that was far better than the one at the Oval where the hosts had lost by 10 wickets.
Quite a few of England batters threw their wickets away after getting starts when the need of the hour was to play with circumspection. Had it not been for a 62-run stand for the seventh wicket between Moeen Ali (47, 64b, 2×4, 2×6) and David Willey (41, 49b, 2×4, 2×6), England would have certainly been in an embarrassing position.
Coming in to bat at No. 8, Willey showed the senior batters of the side how to bat on the pitch. He was unwilling to take any risk waiting for the loose ball. When it came he took full advantage of it and hit it either for a boundary or a six while in between he ran the ones and twos quite intelligently. In short Willey batted with his thinking cap on which the more recognised batters did not do. Due to his and Ali’s efforts England could reach a score near 250 even though they were again guilty of not batting out their full quota of 50 overs.
Jason Roy (23), Jonny Bairstow (38, 38b, 5×4), Ben Stokes 21, Liam Livingstone (33, 33b, 2×4, 2×6) were all guilty of playing with the sword and perishing with it. Or why would Livingstone try to hit Hardik Pandya (2/26 off 6) out of the ground when he had already managed a huge six in the same over. He was caught on the deep square-leg fence by substitute Shreyas Iyer. Bairstow on the other hand after doing all the hard work against the searing pace of Mohammed Shami (1/48) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/49) played down the wrong line to Chahal and was bowled.
Joe Root (11) was also fooled by Chahal. The batter went for a sweep thinking it was a googly. Instead it turned out to be a flipper and Root was caught plumb in front. Only England skipper Jos Buttler got a peach of a delivery from Shami for which he had no answer to. The ball zipped back off the pitch to crash into the stumps with Buttler trying to flick it to the leg side.
Pandya once more demonstrated what a useful cricketer he is to the team when he bowls. He picked up the wickets of Roy and Livingstone when both were threatening to cut loose.
Brief scores: England 246 in 49 overs (Moeen Ali 47, David Willey 41, Yuzvendra Chahal 4/47, Jasprit Bumrah 2/49). Match to continue.
PNN & Agencies
