England vs India 2018: 5 reasons why India lost the second ODI

​

India failed to seal the series with a win at Lord's

It was supposed to be MS Dhoni's milestone moment. First, he got to 300 ODI catches then he scaled Mount 10,000 but in the end, all of that was brushed aside as England spoiled the party by beating India by 86 runs in the second ODI at Lord's and leveled the three-match ODI series 1-1.

For much of the game, it looked like a familiar script was being followed. England got off to a good start, India brought on their two spinners, who curtailed the flow of runs and picked up crucial wickets. In response, Virat Kohli looked set and on course to register another one of his crucial knocks in a run chase that helped his side get over the line.

But there were a few major deviations to the script along the way. After the spinners brought India back into the game, the visitors let the game slip at the death. Although both openers fell early, neither Kohli nor Raina scored a fifty. And the usually dependable MS Dhoni played an uncharacteristically slow knock that earned some boos towards the end of the match.

And all of that meant that India lost at Lord's by a whopping margin of 86 runs and will go into the third ODI at Headingley with the series level at 1-1.

Here are 5 reasons why India lost the second ODI at Lord's:

England taking the attack to Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep was still among the wickets but England ensured that they came at a cost

One of the things about international cricket is that players don't take things for granted. And if they know that they have committed a mistake, it usually doesn't take long for the players involved to correct that. Kuldeep Yadav ran rings around England in the first ODI, picking up his career-best ODI figures in the process but this time around, England were ready for him.

Although the chinaman still picked up a wicket off his second ball, two wickets inside his first three overs and finished with three wickets in the second ODI, he also went for plenty of runs. Both Morgan and Root understood the need to attack him and they did so at regular intervals.

From figures of 3-0-11-2 when England's Test and ODI captain first were at the crease, he went for 57 in his next seven overs and picked up just one wicket (off a full toss which should have been hit for six). And when Kohli turned to him for wickets towards the latter stages of the innings, he went wicketless.

​