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Rohit’s hundred in vain as England take series 2-1
Rohit Sharma's 138 guide India in a chase for 388, but England secures a 27-run win, sealing the series 2-1 despite India's valiant effort.
Mumbai: Even in the loss, Rohit Sharma returned a hero. The former captain confronted his doubters head-on in the best form possible by mounting a magnificent hundred - 138 (110b, 17x4, 5x6). It was an innings that promised to make the impossible possible, but India lacked the T20-style power in their middle order to achieve 11 runs per over for the final 11 overs.
India’s inexperienced bowlers were thrashed across the deep pockets at Lord’s, but their batters responded in some style. Even though India could not get over the line while pursuing a mammoth 388, they remained in the hunt for large parts of the run chase.
There would, however, be no repeat of the NatWest final from 24 years ago as England completed a 27-run victory to take the series 2-1.
India began their chase needing 7.76 runs per over. But Rohit and Shubman Gill scored at a run-rate of 5 in the Powerplay. They seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Unless the ball was in their arc, they avoided manufacturing boundaries. Rohit went big with his trademark pull. Gill was unsparing when the pacers hit a driving length.
With strokes of poise and the occasional calculated risk, the Indian openers grew in confidence. When Gill (77 off 84b) was foxed by Adil Rashid at the halfway mark of the innings, even though the asking rate was touching 10, the Indian contingent had not stopped dreaming.
As soon as Virat Kohli arrived at the crease, England decided to give Jofra Archer an extra over; signs that they worried about India’s batting momentum. Kohli wasn’t going to give Archer the pleasure of dismissing him thrice in a row. Nor was he going to play him out. He whipped him past deep mid-wicket for a four.
At the other end, Rohit spotted his match-up against Josh Tongue and launched him for two straight sixes. The crowd would soon be in delirium when Rohit slog-swept Adil Rashid in the 31st over to bring up his 34th ODI hundred, this time after an interval of 9 months. But this one was to crush talks of his impending retirement. Rohit would not even remove his helmet in celebration with the job unfinished, even as India’s entire changing room rose up in applause on the Lord’s balcony.
Soon when he began cramping and found running between the wickets difficult, Rohit had a word with Kohli and started looking for big hits. He did some damage too before falling to Jacob Bethell. But by then, Kohli had been left with a lot to do. It wasn’t to be for the chase master when he became one of Curran’s 4 victims after scoring 74 (60b). That’s when the English all-rounder virtually sealed the result.
With the ball, to compensate for Jasprit Bumrah’s loss (injured knee), India used a four-pronged pace attack and dropped their wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav again. They may not have factored in that three of their pacers - Prince Yadav, Gurnoor Brar and Arshdeep Singh - would have their first brush with the Lord’s slope in an international match. Ben Duckett (141 off 135b) and Jacob Bethell (91 off 93b) took complete toll of their erratic lines and inaccurate lengths.
Brar, who had otherwise been impressive in the series, was heavily punished and ended with figures of 10-0-97-0. England plundered 82 runs in the final 5 overs as Joe Root remained unbeaten through the series. The ODI master notched up an innings of 74* (48b) to go with 76* and 99*. Jos Buttler got down to business to with his late cameo of 13-ball 41*.
