England outspin India to clinch three match ODI series 2-1

England beat India by eight wickets to clinch three match ODI series 2-1 at Headingley on Tuesday. Adil Rashid and David Willey applied breaks to the scoring during India’s batting by picking wickets at crucial intervals. Following the astounding performance with ball in hand, the hosts produced a clinical chase to win the Royal London One Day Cup with sheer dominance.

England won the toss and unlike Lord’s they decided to field in overcast conditions. India had their problems upfront with the ball doing a bit off the pitch. Rohit Sharma struggled to get going and lost his wicket cheaply. The Hitman found it difficult to hit in the finals and when he eventually managed to hit one, he did it straight to the deep square leg fielder after chewing up 18 deliveries for his two runs.

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Virat Kohli joined in with Shikhar Dhawan and they seemed to rebuilt the innings after a disappointing powerplay which produced only 32 runs. Shikhar Dhawan looked in sublime touch but again the luck wasn’t on his side as he was run out of a direct hit by Ben Stokes. He scored a quick 44 off just 47 balls smashing eight boundaries.

Dinesh Karthik came in and looked busy from the word go. He scored a quick 20 before dragging one onto the stumps. Adil Rashid produced a great bowling spell getting rid of three Indian batsman, including skipper Virat Kohli with a peach of a delivery which kept his mouth open in shock for quite sometime. What followed is something that Navjot Singh Siddhu once quoted,”Indian team is like a cycle stand, if one falls, all fall”. Once captain Kohli departed, only Shardul Thakur showed intent scoring 22 off just 13 balls whereas MS Dhoni played a sensible innings, getting India close to a respectable total but when it was time to launch big, he perished leaving India in a spot of bother.

England needed 257 runs to clinch the series and they did it in style without any major hiccups. Jonny Bairstow and James Vince killed the chase in the powerplay itself scoring at a rate of nots. Once the openers were out, the experienced pair of Joe Root and Eoin Morgan capitalised on the start provided by the top order. They chased down the total in just 44.3 ensuring a one sided victory to win the series 2-1.

Virat Kohli’s ploy of making three changes for the all important final, back fired big time. He said at the toss that they are giving a go to the players who haven’t got a chance to play. Surely wasn’t an occasion to experiment as India lost the three match series which they should have won with the firepower they possess.

Joe Root won the man of the series award for his 113 at Lord’s and 100* at Headingley. It will do a world of good to the Test captain after being rested in the final match of the 2-1 T20 series defeat earlier in the tour.

Brief scores: India 256/8 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 71, David Willey 9-0-40-3) lost to England 260/2 in 44.3 overs (Joe Root 100*, Shardul Thakur 10-0-51-1) by eight wickets.