When England landed in India in November, Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes were still valid in the country, Parthiv Patel had not played a Test match since 2008, MS Dhoni was still India’s limited overs captain, Yuvraj Singh was unmarried and Karun Nair or Kedar Jadhav were relatively unknown names for Indian cricket fans. We’ve got a huge amount of positives to take from the last few games.
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In reply, England lost Alex Hales cheaply but Joe Root (54) and Jason Roy steadied the innings with a century stand.
Woakes bowled brilliantly, taking KL Rahul’s (5) edge on a clever length before a wide yorker surprised Kohli and a diving Ben Stokes did the business at second slip.
England needed 73 runs off the last five overs, and edged closer as Morgan and Liam Plunkett (26 not out) added a quick-fire 50 off 25 balls.
Yuvraj was in tears as he brought up his first ODI century since the 2011 World Cup, the ice-cool Dhoni giving his partner a pep talk. Although India lost the rain-interrupted match, but Yuvraj’s swashbuckling century showed that he had match-winning capabilities.
India will look forward to field the same eleven in the 3 ODI as well but they might not just be able to do that for the news has come in that Shikhar Dhawan has an injury in his finger which might force him to miss the upcoming India vs England encounter. “We weren’t that far off and I don’t think we batted that well”. It’s just a case of getting to know each other and I know everyone in the squad pretty well, so whoever I’m opening up with is not a problem. I don’t like to put too much pressure on myself.
Former Captain MS Dhoni also compounded with his unbeaten 134 off 122 balls and they’d many fruitful partnerships in the past.
Another person who needs to worry is Delhi left-hander Dhawan as Rahane after his 83-ball 91 in the second warm-up match is breathing down his neck.
Yuvraj Singh’s score of 150 was the sixth highest score made by any batsman against England.
He was finally out for 150, caught behind off Woakes.
During the course of the innings, Dhoni became the fifth player to hit 200 sixes in ODIs and his 196 sixes is the most for India eclipsing 195 by Sachin Tendulkar.
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The right-left combo continued to hammer the English bowlers all over the park as Dhoni also got to his 10th ODI ton off 106 balls. “We hope to play to our full potential in Kolkata”, Kohli said after Thursday’s win.
