Yuzvendra Chahal’s clever variations complemented by Hardik Pandya’s steady fast medium bowling saw India beat England for a manageable 246 in 49 overs in the second ODI at the Lord’s on Thursday. However, it was Moeen Ali (47 from 64 balls) who took the charge back to the opposition side with his daring hooked and pull sixes interspersed with slog sweeps, as England’s total showed some semblance of respect after the dreaded top order promised much but lived up to small.
With the numbers of 4/47, Chahal has now achieved the best return for an Indian bowler in ODIs at Lord’s. He surpassed Mohinder Amarnath’s figures of 3/12 against the West Indies in the 1983 World Cup Final.
Moeen and David Willey (41 from 49 balls) added 62 runs for the seventh wicket to help set up a 250-run goal after 200 seemed unlikely at one point.
On a two-speed track, Chahal (10-0-47-4) was brilliant at managing his lengths while giving the ball plenty of air when he lost England’s ‘Big Three’ – Jonny Bairstow (31), Joe Root (11) and Ben Stokes (21) — and then took out Moeen just when he looked dangerous.
On the other hand, Pandya (6-0-28-2), who is slowly regaining his bowling rhythm, broke in with wickets from Jason Roy (23) and Liam Livingstone (33) to choke the run-flow while Rohit Sharma had another fine day at the office and maneuvered his six-man attack.
Mohammed Shami (10-0-48-1) was as royal as ever when he knocked down rival skipper Jos Buttler (4) with a sharp inswinger who overtook late.
Jasprit Bumrah (10-1-49-2) and Shami were again in the zone, although it was not as big a debacle for England as in the opening game.
It was a steady start for England as Roy first tried to break the shackles by storming Shami’s lane and blasting him over the middle of the wicket for a six, then whipping him across the same region for a boundary.
Rohit showed great improv skills when he got Pandya inside the Powerplay. Roy went in for a cheeky flick and Suryakumar Yadav stationed a few yards in at the rear square leg boundary had the easiest catches.
It was during the medium overs that Chahal was excellent as he controlled the white Kookaburra like a yo-yo, sometimes pushing the delivery fuller to trick Bairstow into a sweep shot with no space available.
In Root’s case there was plenty of flight, but the length shortened a bit as he went for the sweep and missed the line.
Stokes attempted a reverse sweep of a straight pitch and Livingstone, after a run-a-ball 33, was hollowed out in the deep end at Pandya, and trouble loomed large for the home side.
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But Moeen, knowing Indian bowlers will slash him with short things, coped well and Willey, on the other hand, was steady as in the first match as the duo took England past 200 runs.
Chahal ended his fine spell when he bowled a little full and wide, causing a slog from Moeen to the longest part of the Lord’s grounds. The batter couldn’t get rid of Ravindra Jadeja, who took a well-judged flyout that went around the deep mid-wicket area.
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