Friday, March 26, 2021

2nd ODI In Pune: England Level The Series.

India were put into bat and were simply excellent.

England stand-in captain and wicketkeeper, Buttler, made two critical drops during India's innings.

The England attack was generally below par and they were left chasing a huge target of 337. (How come nobody knows how to bowl a yorker on a regular basis?)

Astonishingly brilliant batting from the England top three was rather marred by the messy run out of Jason Roy shortly after he had made an excellent 55.


Bairstow was again outstanding with a sooooper century!  Ben Stokes was almost as tremendous with 99. (Sadly, just one more run and it would have been the third fastest century ever by an Englishman in an ODI.) Three wickets tumbled within five runs and England wobbled but Malan and Livingstone saw England home by a margin of six wickets and plenty of unused overs.
This was nowhere near the strongest side England could put out and the result was all the more satisfying because of this.

Phew.