Prior to Sunday’s ODI against India, England were without a win on their ongoing tour of India and hadn’t ever won an ODI at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. On Sunday though, they broke both those dismal records at one go after they defeated the home team by five runs in the final ODI of the three-match series.
The Indian captain Virat Kohli was the recipient of the winner’s trophy though, after his team had won the first two matches, to clinch the series 2-1.
The first two ODIs in the series were high-scoring ties, and it was expected after looking at the amount of grass left on the Eden Gardens pitch that the 3rd ODI be another run feast.
It turned out to be just that. England, put in to bat, were powered by half-centuries from Jason Roy (65), Jonny Bairstow (56) and Ben Stokes (57*). Along with useful contributions from Sam Billings (35), Eoin Morgan (43) and Chris Woakes (34), the visitors finished with 321-8 – the highest total by a visiting team in ODIs at the Eden Gardens.
In reply, India almost got across the finish line; they finished at 316-9 – one stroke away from clean-sweeping the ODI series. India’s spirited chase meant both teams had posted in excess of 300 every occasion they had stepped out to bat in the series. The aggregate of runs in the three ODIs stood at 2090 – the highest-ever registered in a three-match ODI series.
Team India almost had the match in the bag. They were in a spot of bother at 173-5 when MS Dhoni was dismissed – needing a further 149 runs from 112 balls with just the lower half of the batting line-up left.
But Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya took the fight to the opposition and stitched together a 104-run partnership for the sixth wicket. What was particularly impressive about the partnership was that both batsmen went hard at Ben Stokes – England’s go-to-man – and scored plenty of runs off him.
But once Hardik was dismissed, Kedar took it upon himself to complete the job. He almost did. At the start of the final over of the chase, India needed 16, which was reduced to 6 runs from four balls after Kedar picked up a six and a boundary off the first two balls. But after failing the score off the third and fourth deliveries, he was dismissed off the penultimate delivery of the match, leaving Bhuvneshwar Kumar to score a six off the final delivery.
Chris Woakes bowled a length delivery, which Bhuvneshwar failed to connect, and England eventually tasted their first win in an international match on this tour of India.
Though India won the series, the result must not mask two major areas of concern in the Indian line-up. First up is the form of the opening batsmen; in a series where batsmen made merry, the Indian openers only managed an aggregate of 37 runs, with a highest score of 11.
India began this ODI series hoping to find answers to who would open the innings come the ICC Champions Trophy. But after these three ODIs, the team management has learnt nothing they already didn’t know and are no closer to the answer than they were before the series.
Despite the fact that the conditions were certainly lopsided in favour of the batsmen, one needs to ask if the bowlers did enough to make life difficult for the batsmen. Did the bowlers maintain their disciplines sufficiently? Did they apply themselves well enough to make the batsmen work for their runs? Was there anything else the bowlers could have explored to push the batsmen into their uncomfortable zones?
The Indian selectors and team management will now have to rely on the form of players in T20 cricket to establish which player fits into which role within the team come the Champions Trophy in June. India and England compete in a 3-match T20 International series which begins on 26 January.
Here’s the schedule for the India-England T20 Series
26 January | 1st T20I at Kanpur
29 January | 2nd T20I at Nagpur
1 February | 3rd T20I at Bengaluru
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)