After receiving a thrashing in the first ODI at The Oval in London, England royally returned the favour in the same city, but this time at Lord’s. A massive 100-run defeat for India was largely a result of their timid batting approach. After taking England to a decent total of 246 with the bat, David Willey then combined with Reece Topley to topple Indian batters. Topley registered the best bowling figures by an Englishman in ODIs, and the two teams will now face each other at Manchester in the series decider on Sunday. We look back at the defining moments and stats from yet another one-sided encounter between these two sides.
Chahal sweeping England
Yuzvendra Chahal was the standout bowler for India, finishing with 4/47. His wickets – getting rid of Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali – had the biggest impact on England’s innings. A peculiar thing about those dismissals was that the first three all got out trying to sweep or reverse sweep him, with Ali getting holed out after mistiming a slog sweep.
The key to Chahal’s first three wickets was the flight that he offered on those balls and also landing them quite full. Stokes probably brought his own downfall by stubbornly reverse sweeping Chahal irrespective of his length or line. Eventually, Chahal’s continuous attack on the stumps through his straight lines was enough to send back Stokes. Chahal ended up with the best figures by an Indian bowler in an ODI at Lord’s.
India’s sedate start
A target of 247 is seldom challenging in this modern ODI age. However, it was a typical Lord’s pitch that offered something to both pacers and spinners. India started extremely cautiously, which was also a result of some outstanding tight bowling from England’s two left-arm pacers – Topley and Willey.
India played out 25 dots before they could score a run off the bat. Rohit Sharma scored a 10-ball duck. India never got going in the first Powerplay, scoring just 28 runs and losing both their openers. Kohli seemed to be in good touch but an extended spell from Willey, bowling his sixth over, got him to nick off a widish ball, leaving India reeling at 31-4.
Kohli’s struggles outside off
Virat Kohli looked in decent touch for his first 24 balls of the innings, having a control percentage of 83%. He scored three Fours – an on drive, an off drive and a cover drive. The conditions and match situation were ideal for the ‘Chase Master’. However, he perished off his 25th ball, chasing a harmless ball outside the off-stump off a good length.
In 2022, Kohli has been dismissed 16 times against pacers in limited-overs cricket. Of those, eight have come against balls in the 4th-6th stump line, which is half of his dismissals. Kohli has nine 50+ scores in his last 19 ODI innings. However, the most worrying part wouldn’t be his lack of 100s, but his similar mode of dismissals.
Reece Topley probably had the best day of his professional career. He was ably helped by Willey with the ball, who also had a match-defining 62-run partnership with Moeen Ali to steer England towards a defendable score. Both teams are yet to display a good batting performance and would be hoping to end the series with some memorable knocks.