The Report by Sidharth Monga
On a pitch most suited to their spinners, India’s batsmen and fast bowlers somehow contrived to leave all the eggs in their spinners’ basket, but under the pressure of expectation when defending a small total, they failed to prevent the end of India’s nine-series winning streak in bilateral ODIs. On a dry, almost Asia-like track in Leeds, England could be proud of themselves for outperforming India’s spinners, considered the best in the world, and also batting better against spin than a line-up that has grown up facing some of the best spinners in the world. Powered by Joe Root’s second successive hundred, they finished the chase of 257 off in 44.3 overs.
Adil Rashid, who suffered in comparison to Kuldeep Yadav two matches ago, began England’s turnaround by bowling an imperious-looking Virat Kohli past his outside edge after pitching on leg stump. India were looking good for 300 during the partnership between Kohli and Dinesh Karthik, but Rashid took out both of them to start a turnaround in which India got only 100 runs in the last 20 overs. The fast bowlers – playing, according to Kohli, because they hadn’t yet got a game in the series – got off to an ordinary start, conceding 14 risk-free boundaries in the first nine overs.
Summarized scores: England 260 for 2 (Root 100*, Morgan 88*) beat India 256 for 8 (Kohli 71, Dhawan 44, Willey 3-40, Rashid 3-49) by eight wickets