India set England a huge target of 337 to keep ODI series alive

India v England - 2nd One Day International
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Will Macpherson26 March 2021

A century from KL Rahul and stunning six-hitting from Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya left England needing to chase 337 to keep the ODI series alive.

India thrashed 14 sixes in what proved a chastening innings for England, who lost the opening match on Tuesday, having opted to bowl first.

England made three significant changes, two of them forced, with Eoin Morgan (split webbing) and Sam Billings (bruised collar bone) replaced by Liam Livingstone and Dawid Malan. There was a rest for Mark Wood, with Reece Topley coming in. That gave the side an experimental look, with just five of their World Cup finalists playing.

India, by contrast, look a stronger side, with Pant replacing the injured Shreyas Iyer adding an extra violent streak to the middle order.

Pant thrashed seven sixes in his 40-ball 77, building on the supreme platform laid by Rahul – who made his fifth ODI hundred – and Virat Kohli, who was dismissed by Adil Rashid for 66. That extended Kohli’s run without an international to 43 innings since late 2019. Pandya finished it off with four sixes in his 16-ball 35.

AP

Topley picked Pandya up with the innings’ penultimate ball and was England’s outstanding seamer. It was a chastening day for the Curran brothers, with Sam taking one for 47, with 21 of those runs coming off his final over. His older sibling Tom (suddenly England’s senior seamer) conceded 83 runs from his 10 overs, although did pick up Rahul and Pant, both caught in the deep.

Topley and Sam Curran, the left-arm pair, had been solid in the opening powerplay, too. Topley got one to just shape away from Shikhar Dhawan, who edged to second slip. Rohit Sharma was just getting into his stride, striking three boundaries off a Topley over, when he turned a Curran half-volley to the lonely man behind square on the legside.

That brought Kohli and KL Rahul together. They were happy to take their time, respecting the spin of Rashid and Moeen Ali. Moeen managed to shuffle through his 10 overs, but it is now six matches across more than a year since he took an ODI wicket.

Kohli was given a life by the wicketkeeper, Buttler, off Rashid when he had 35. England would have feared that Kohli’s century drought was coming to an end, but he made the same mistake again 10 overs later and, this time, Buttler made no mistake. This is the ninth time Rashid has dismissed Kohli nine times across the three international formats. Only New Zealand’s Tim Southee (10) has picked him up more often.

It was, though, a scrappy day for the stand-in captain, however, as he failed to use Topley’s full allocation, and dropped Pandya off him in the 48th over.

India’s method is different to England’s approach of all out attack. They build a platform before exploding at the death, as Rahul and Krunal Pandya did to such devastating effect in the opener.

They took their time to put their foot on the accelerator, but did so in style. Rahul moved to his 108-ball century, then Pant flayed England all around Pune. India had scored 112 in the first 25 overs, and exactly double that in the second. They had executed their plan to perfection.

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