Prasidh Krishna, Krunal Pandya emerge match-winners as England batsmen perish in quest of glory

Bucking the trend from the Test and T20I series that preceded the ODI series against England where they had to engulf humbling losses in the first games of the series, Team Indian started off the 50 over series on a resounding note. 

Having set a target of 318 runs for England to chase and take a 1-0 lead in the three-game series, Virat Kohli’s men fought admirably in the face of a brutal counterattacking partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy to cling the series opener.

Like the T20 series, the first game of the ODI series showed a stark contrast between the outlook and approaches of both India and England. Indian openers took a lot of time before starting to cut loose and always put a price tag on their wickets while on the other hand, England batsmen kept on coming at the Indian batsmen and handed India wickets at crucial junctures that could well have won them the game.

Bairstow and Roy took off on a subdued note and started to open up their shoulders only when one of the debutant Prasidh Krishna returned with his second over of his ODI career. He was guilty of bowling either too full or too short to Bairstow and the right-hander did not need a second invitation to latch onto those deliveries to get England underway in the chase.

Those back-to-back boundaries by Bairstow off Prasidh was the start of a juggernaut by the English openers where they took down everything that the Indian bowling attack as a whole had to throw at them over a considerable period of time.

Prasidh himself was the first victim of the carnage when he returned with his next over. On the very first ball, Bairstow planted his front foot straight down the pitch and lofted his 145 kph delivery over his head in a spirit-deflating manner. The next three balls disappeared too as Bairstow announced England’s eagerness to stamp their authority on the game.

Looking at his partner going all guns blazing at the other end, Roy could not stop himself from opening his shoulders as Kohli brought another debutant Krunal Pandya to bowl inside the powerplay. He took a special liking to the left-arm spinner and returned the favour had inflicted on the England bowlers in the first innings by hitting him for 16 runs in his first over.

Bairstow doubled down on his dominance and carried on with his onslaught against Shardul Thakur to take England’s chasing effort at 89/0 by the end of the first powerplay. The dominance of England openers can be measured by the fact that Bairstow personally crossed India’s score by the end of the 10 over. 

Kohli would have hoped for some respite from the batsmen after the filed restriction was lifted. But, the latest spin twins of Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya kept on being treated with absolute disdain by the duo. 

Bairstow first brutalised the left-arm wrist-spinner who was making some sort of comeback in the team and followed it up with another display of power-packed batting against Krunal Pandya.

Kohli could see the game slipping away from India’s grasp as he must be experienced enough about this England team that they don’t give up playing the big shot. Hence, he had to break the opening partnership and banked on the debutant Prasidh Krishna to deliver albeit he was taken for runs in his first spell.

The quickie did not disappoint his skipper and provided a big breakthrough when Jason Roy found a back of a length delivery getting big on him. He could not negotiate from the front foot and Suryakumar Yadav, who was replacing an injured Rohit Sharma on the filed completed the catch to give India a big relief.

Having tasted success from Prasidh’s pace, Kohli kept him in the attack to get into the English middle order. He delivered once again in his next over picking Ben Stokes who was suffocated for lack of runs and mounting dot balls. The move could have been even better for India and Prasidh, but Virat Kohli himself could not stand up for his bowler and team as he spilt a fairly easy chance of Morgan on the very first ball at the first slip.

Three wickets at the other end did not bring any change to Bairstow’s attitude though as he was carrying on hitting spinners over the top for fun. England lost three wickets but had enough firepower in the batting tank to keep the game away from India. A required run-rate under control thanks to the onslaught by the openers was working in their favour.

India had to dig deep and Kohli brought on his man who has strengthened his reputation as a bowler who gets the job done without making any fuss about it. Shardul Thakur has already done that twice in the T20I series before this game and Kohli needed something similar from him to break the backbone of the England batting line up.

On cue, he first dismissed Bairstow although the shot was on and the right-hander mistimed the shot for the first time in the evening. Bairstow’s departure after a 66-ball-94 comprising of seven statement-making sixes pegged the momentum back in India’s favour.

Shardul was not done for the night though. 

He came back in his next over with the big fish of Eoin Morgan on the very first ball of his fifth over. Morgan was taken by surprise on a short ball that hurried off the surface and KL Rahul was elated punching the edge in his wicketkeeping gloves.

England’s powerhouse white-ball team had one more dangerman remaining at the crease in the form of Buttler, but it was not to be for England. Shardul found Buttler slower in footwork on a delivery that skidded off the surface and the umpire Nitin Menon helped the pacer’s cause by deciding the marginal call in his and India’s favour to wreak havoc on the tourists’ batting order.

Sam Billings, who could come into the side only due to Joe Root’s absence and Moeen Ali, who has many points to prove after warming the bench for the entire T20 series were left to be the only men capable of winning England this game out of the long list of flamboyant batsmen.

The task was becoming an uphill one and Prasidh returned to shut the door of Billings becoming an unlikely hero while Moeen Ali got squared up by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in form of reward for his excellent spell with the new ball.

Sam Curran possesses some serious firepower with the bat and the T20 series showed enough evidence of the England team management’s inability to get the best out of him. Tonight, he had the chance to become a hero, but Krunal Pandya’s stars were shining much brighter than his and he became the all-rounder maiden wicket in the ODIs.

What appeared as a dominant riposte from the England side at the top of the order turned out to be a damp squib at the end with the batsmen not valuing their wickets enough. 

After a rollicking start and having all variables such as the dew factor and required run rate in their hands, England needed someone to bat through the middle overs and pace the chasing efforts instead of all batsmen going for glory shots and perishing in the process.

Earlier, England skipper Eoin Morgan won yet another toss and decided to bowl first in a move that would not have surprised anyone. However, Virat Kohli was delighted at the prospect of trying his bowlers while defending a total, but the onus was on batsmen to give them a breathing space.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started off on a cautious note against the English new-ball pair of Mark Wood and Sam Curran. The pitch was offering pace and carry and Wood made sure to test Rohit’s control at the crease bowling with a brisk pace. He hit Rohit on his right elbow to leave him bleeding as Graeme Swann wondered in the commentary box as to why that part of the arm is called funny bone.

From the other end, Curran was getting some assistance in the air and was doing just enough with the ball to deny Rohit any width and Dhawan any full pitched deliveries for him to unleash his favourite drives through the off side.

However, the England bowlers blinked first as the pair of Rohit and Dhawan outdid their patience and Wood got desperate. He gave Dhawan room and after conceding a cut behind the point, he corrected his length too much and erred bowling a fuller length delivery which the left-hander obliged by bringing his sublime drive through the off side.

Wood received similar treatment in his next over from Rohit and India got up and running by the end of the first powerplay. However, there was a definite lack of urgency from both the batsmen and it was another case of batting with a different approach than their opposition batsmen.

The first shot in anger and desperation from India came in the 15th over. Rohit Sharma danced down the track to pull a short delivery from Tom Curran in a dismissive fashion to send a signal of change in the gear of batting. The change of intent however could not last long and Ben Stokes broke through to eliminate the threat of Rohit with one of his worst possible deliveries.

The next man in at the crease was Virat Kohli, who has been brilliantly, but a century has been elusive for him for almost years now. He was on the money from the word go with good strides towards the ball. Kohli was at the ball and when Stokes presented him with a scoring opportunity with a wide half volley, the offer was gleefully accepted by the Indian captain.

Continuing the match up games from the T20 series, Morgan introduced Adil Rashid when Kohli was looking to get his eyes in but Dhawan was well set by that point. The left-hander was in no mood to not waste his start and capitalised on Rashid’s bowling to boost his own and India’s scoring rate.

The duo has been champion pair in ODIs and they were putting on a master class on how to pace a partnership in the middle overs. They were helped by Moeen Ali by dropping a dolly of a catch of Dhawan off a half-tracker by Rashid.

Morgan brought Moeen from the other end and provided the all-rounder with an opportunity to redeem himself after dropping a catch. However, Dhawan started to look like coming to his own by the time of his arrival and plundered him over different parts of the ground to set up India on the perfect path to build on an above-par score.

A splendid partnership between Dhawan and Kohli was derailed when the Indian skipper was found out at the square leg boundary in pursuit of a highly-ambitious shot off Wood. Kohli had played similar shots for six in Australia and attempted to flick Wood over square leg for six. However, extra pace from Wood saw him mistiming the shot and the ball could carry only as far as the square leg fielder.

There was no stopping Dhawan though as two more the pacer was sent to boundary ropes twice in the same over of departure of Kohli.

India’s number four Shreyas Iyer started off on a confident note by pulling Wood in front of the square. However, he got too greedy and attempted to hit Wood over the top through extra cover. He could not time the ball and substitute fielder Liam Livingstone did not commit any mistake.

After Iyer’s departure, came KL Rahul, who’s point was under contention due to his form in the T20 series although he merited a place in the team base don his performance at that position. He took some time to get his eyes in and with Dhawan who was nearing his hundred, India’s momentum was completely stalled in the middle overs. 

Dhawan did not last long enough after Rahul’s arrival at the crease and India were left to wonder if their tactics of making the most of the last overs have backfired on them. The threat of the latter got more serious when Ben Stokes got Hardik Pandya edging to slips. He turned around things for England in his two overs with the twin strikes of Dhawan and Pandya.

KL Rahul was finding it tough to nail big shots but all of a sudden, a ranked long hop from Sam Curran was dispatched over square leg and he was back to his best. At the other end, Krunal Pandya walked out to bat on his ODI debut after his brother’s departure from the crease.

He was coming off from a fantastic Vijay Hazare Trophy and the confidence was there to be seen by everyone. He started plundering ball towards the boundary ropes right from the start and took Sam Curran for 16 runs straightaway. 

Looking at Krunal shifting momentum for the team, and with only a handful of overs at his disposal, Rahul too changed his gear and sent Rashid way over long-off in his typical manner.

Sam’s brother Tom Curran received similar treatment from Krunal Pandya as the left-hander appeared to be a man on a mission to demolish all sorts of pressure England had built before his arrival. Tom Curran’s next overs yielded 23 runs and India were well within the sight of runs in excess of 300.

Rahul and Krunal had to keep going great guns with only three overs remaining and Morgan brought Wood to check the duo’s fearsome strokeplay. The move rather played right into the hands of India as both Rahul and Krunal put all their shots on display. A fuller ball on stumps was smashed over long-on, while a shorter ball on the body was cut fiercely over the third man for six.

In the process, Krunal reached his fifty from 26 balls which is a record for the fastest fifty by a debutant in the 50-overs format. Rahul too was not far behind and he brought up his fifty to quash all the talks around his place in the team and form.

Finally, India broke the jinx of starting off slowly in a series and then coming up with strong performances to win the series as were the case in the T20 and Test series against England. 

Virat Kohli had expressed the eagerness to correct that aspect fo the game and he will be delighted to see his men putting their hands up when the pressure was mounting by the ultra-aggressive England batsmen. 

England, on the other hand, will look back at the game as a missed opportunities which they blow away for their lack of adaptability. The run rate was under control and they had to change their tempo of batting and spend some time at the crease to take the scoreboard going. However, they went for glory as their approach has been over the years, and it turned out to be a self-destructing move.