Despite the setback received by the hosts at Trent Bridge, England with a dominating performance won the all important second ODI. Joe Root scored a magnificent hundred. Liam Plunkett took an excellent 4-fer.
Earlier in the day, the English skipper surprised one and all with his decision to bat first on a surface which seemed to have lot of runs on it. Both the teams were unchanged for today's contest.
It was a familiar script from the first ODI.
Openers Bairstow and Roy tool full advantage of the powerplay. But both of them were dismissed eventually by Kuldeep Yadav. It looked like Kuldeep would have another great outing but it wasn't to be. Root and Morgan brought up the 100 run partnership to take the scoreboard to 189.
Morgan falled to Kuldeep again at well made 53. Both Stokes and Buttler fell cheaply to Hardik and Umesh respectively.David Willey quite known for his batting at the domestic level join hands with Joe Root to take England's to a good score. Root brought up his century after being a tad out of from off late. David Willey's 50 of 31 balls took scoreboard to 322.
At the innings break, it seemed like they were 25-30 runs short. But it wasn't to be.Both Rohit and Shikhar gifted their wickets when they were looking to take the game away from the Englishmen. Rahul had a forgettable day as he fell for a duck. Both Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli showed some resistance. Eventually when they both got out they had left too much for the lower order to chase.Although not so important milestone in the context of the match MS Dhoni brought up his 10,000 ODI runs.
Rather unnoticeable, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid applied the brakes on run scoring on a pitch which assisted them. Moeen picked up all important wicket of Virat Kohli and Adil Rashid removed Suresh Raina who was looking set to score big.
Joe Root was named Man of the Match for his brilliant hundred(scored 113).
Now the action moves to Leeds for the decider on 17 July. Stay tuned.
It was a great innings from Root. Coming in after Kuldeep had struck twice, England could have gotten into trouble again. Hopefully this will get him back into form for the rest of the summer. I'm sure his captaincy of the Test side will be a lot easier if he begins scoring runs again
They did counter-attack Kuldeep in my opinion. Picked up an odd boundary whenever on offer and rotated the strike. Obviously it was a masterclass from Root today and England would be hoping he continues to score.
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Whoever wins the deciding game will take confidence into the test series as well as next year's world cup. Let's hope it's a tense competitive game with a close finish
I expect both the teams to play some real tough cricket at Headingley ODI and hopefully it's a close contest unlike first two ODIs.
Nice and well written post.I love cricket😊
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