Kennington [UK], July 13 (ANI): Following his side’s ten-wicket win over England in the second ODI, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah said that when the ball is doing something, the bowler does not have to try a lot.
Bumrah’s match-winning spell and Rohit Sharma’s half-century helped India gain a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against England after a ten-wicket win in the first ODI.
“When there is swing and seam movement, it is very exciting in white-ball cricket to get that opportunity because you have to be defensive with the kind of pitches we usually get. When I bowled the first ball, I found some swing and we tried to exploit that. When it doesn’t swing, I have to pull my lengths back. When the ball is doing something you don’t have to try a lot,” said Bumrah in a post-match presentation.
“When the wicket is flat your accuracy is tested. It is a good place to be when the ball is swinging. As soon as Shami bowled the first over, we had a conversation to go fuller. Very happy for him, he gets a lot of wickets. I told him when he beats the bat, that there would be days when he’d run through the side. When the ball is moving around, the keeper and the cordon is very active. Very happy that Rishabh has been working hard on his keeping as well as his batting,” he added.
Put to bat first, England could post only 110 runs on the board as pacers Jasprit Bumrah (6/19) and Mohammed Shami (3/31) destroyed their batting attack. Jos Buttler (30) and David Willey (21) were the only ones who could deliver notable contributions.
A Chase of 111 runs was a cakewalk for India as the opening duo of Rohit Sharma (76*) and Shikhar Dhawan (31*) never gave the English team a chance to uproot them from the crease and took India to the finishing line with more than 32 overs to spare by ten wickets.
Chasing 111, Team India started off on a decent note with the opening pair of Rohit and Dhawan steadily taking the innings forward. The duo scored 21 runs in six overs, before bringing the momentum in the game and smashing 35 runs in the next four overs.
The Men in Blue crossed the 50-run mark in 10 overs with both the batters standing unbeaten at the crease. Continuing the proceedings at a steady rate, Rohit brought up his half-century in 49 balls and helped Team India reach the 100-run mark in 18 overs.
With only 11 runs left to win, the duo smashed 13 runs in the next four balls and brought Team India to a 10-wicket victory in just mere 18.4 overs and gained a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series against England.
Earlier, opting to bowl first, Indian bowlers proved their captain Rohit Sharma’s decision right as Bumrah wreaked havoc on England batters in the powerplay.
England’s opening batter Jason Roy was sent back to the pavilion on a golden duck. Roy’s wicket was quickly followed by Joe Root, who was fell prey to Bumrah without scoring a run. Ben Stokes then came to bat, but could not stand long as he was dismissed by Mohammed Shami without opening his account.
At that point opening batter, Jonny Bairstow tried to anchor innings. His inning was cut short by the fiery bowling of Bumrah, who departed Bairstow on seven runs.
Captain Jos Buttler stood on the crease like the only hope for the Three Lions. Liam Livingstone the hard-hitting batter of the team was dismissed for a duck by Bumrah.England’s top order tumbling on a grassy pitch at The Oval. Jason Roy, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone were all out for ducks.
At the 8th over England’s score read 26-5. Indian bowlers made English batters dance to their tunes and grabbed wickets at regular intervals to completely dismantle the hosts.
England captain and Moeen Ali managed to stem the flow of wickets for a while before the latter fell to Prasidh Krishna.Buttler’s wicket ended England’s last hope to post a respectable total on board, finally fell to Shami for 30 off 32 balls. Buttler’s wicket invited Craig Overton to the crease but the latter could not do much and was dismissed by Shami after scoring 8 runs.
At that point, Shami was on fire as he demolished England 68 for 8. David Willey and Brydon Carse came to the rescue to help their team to post a decent total in front of their home crowd.
The duo kept changing the sides to pile up runs in their favour. They stitched a brief partnership of 35 runs before Carse fell prey to Bumrah’s spell and was bowled after scoring 15 runs off 26 balls. Reece Topley was the next man in, who joined hands with Willey at the crease.
It was Bumrah, who struck again and dismissed Topley to restrict England’s batting run at 110, which is also their lowest total in an ODI match. (ANI)