Who Said What: World reacts to India’s empathic win in the 1st ODI against England
Over the past few years, Trent Bridge has been a happy hunting ground for England and they have dominated every team in this venue in every format of the game. A few weeks ago, we have witnessed the England team amassing the highest ODI score of 481 against the hapless Australians in a 50 over One Day game and winning the game comfortably without any trouble. Today the odds were in the favour of the home team to win the game against the Indians at the very same venue but what followed after 2 hours into the England batting was absolute drama.
Opting to field first after the winning the toss, certainly raised few eyebrows considering the flat nature of the pitch and the records held at the venue. But none of them would bother this current Indian team, who are high in confidence after winning the T20 series.
England got off to their usual blazing start thanks to their in-form openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, who scored at more than 7 runs per over in the power play. Umesh Yadav and Siddharth Kaul were taken apart and it was just a matter of time before the spin twins were to be introduced into the attack.
Kuldeep Yadav, who has been having a golden time with the ball showcased his prowess by nipping out the top 3 of the England team. Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root have been sent back to the pavilion within no time and suddenly from a comfortable 73-1, England slipped to 82-3 in 13 overs.
The onus was again on Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes to resurrect the innings. Both the batsmen milked the bowling for a decent length of time but the scoreboard pressure caught up with the Skipper and he perished of the bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal for 19.
Ben Stokes, who was making a comeback into the team after an injury lay-off was clearly struggling against the wily spin duo of Chahal and Kuldeep. However, he received the much-needed support from Jos Butler, who kept the scoreboard ticking. Both the pair added 93 runs for the 5th wicket before Butler perished.
Ben Stokes hung around and scored a patient 50 before holing out in the deep. This was the 5th wicket for Kuldeep Yadav and a moment to savour for the young man, who was dropped in the 3rd T20I.
England huffed and puffed, and in the end, they were all-out for 268 with 1 ball remaining. Undoubtedly, Kuldeep Yadav’s 5-fer broke the back of England and India were in the driving seat.
In reply, India got off to a quick start, thanks to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, who made full use of the conditions. Dhawan looked fluent throughout his inning until he miscued one of the bowling of Moeen Ali to be caught in the ring for a well made 40. Skipper Virat Kohli joined Rohit Sharma in the 8th over at the score of 59 and what followed was absolute hammering for England.
The pair added 167 runs for the second wicket and England had no answer to the onslaught by the two batsmen. Firstly it was Rohit Sharma’s show, after a 100 at Bristol on the other day, Rohit continued his sublime form and stroked boundaries at will.
His cuts and drives were a treat to watch and he effortlessly notched up a century. His knock of 137* comprised of 15 boundaries and 4 maximums. He received able support from Virat Kohli, who loves chasing. Kohli looked in great touch as he effortlessly notched up another half-century and he looked in trouble. His knock of 75 came to an end after he was stumped of the bowling of Adil Rashid.
Both the batsmen look at ease and the England bowlers had no answers to the might of the two Indian batsmen.
India reached the target of 269 in 40.1 overs with 8 wickets to spare.
For his magical spell of bowling, Kuldeep Yadav was awarded Man of the Match. His match figures read 10-0-25-6.
With a thumping victory, India takes 1-0 lead in the 3 match series and the social media was on fire. Let us look at a few reactions from across the world.
Virat Kohli " As clinical as it can be. We knew it was a good wicket to play on. Those wrist spinners in the middle overs are going to be tricky. Given more overs and more time in the middle, they become even more lethal. When guys are not going hard at them, they have 10 overs and they know they have something to comeback and have the skill to do it. Kuldeep was outstanding. To give away 25 runs and pick up 6 wickets on that kind of a wicket, I don't think I have seen a better spell of bowling in ODIs of late. After that, Rohit batting very long and finishing the game for us "
Eoin Morgan: " Certainly not our best day out here. Full credit to India as they completely outplayed us. Kuldeep had a very good day at the office. Playing spin against India is one challenge that hopefully we will keep improving upon. But today we were well off the mark. I think both the games there has been more turn than on the grounds that we have played on and that is one thing probably that we have identified "
Michael Vaughan
Virender Sehwag:
Lawrence Booth:
Sachin Tendulkar:
Harsha Bhogle:
Mohandas Menon:
Mazhar Arshad:
Brendan Taylor: