England 321 for 8 (Roy 65, Stokes 57*, Bairstow 56, Pandya 3-49) v India
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Jonny Bairstow struck a brisk 56 to guide England’s innings © AFP
England’s batsmen produced another tapestry of well-paced cameos in the third ODI against India at Kolkata, as they passed 300 for the third time in as many matches without ever quite touching the heights of destruction that their counterparts have managed in each of their two victories in the opening rubbers of the series.
A spirited last hurrah from Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes, whose seventh-wicket stand amassed 73 runs from 40 balls, ensured that England did not squander the earlier efforts of their top order – Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow in particular, whose half-centuries laid the foundations of England’s innings.
However, India will fancy their chances of wrapping up a 3-0 clean sweep, as they launch their pursuit of 322 under the lights at Eden Gardens – the lowest total they have yet been required to make in the series. In mitigation, this is the grassiest and liveliest surface of the three so far in the series, and as England demonstrated in both of their defeats at Pune and Cuttack, their seam bowlers are more than capable of making a dent in India’s top order. Whether they can sustain their threat across the whole 50 overs, however, remains to be seen.
Either way, Woakes and his cohorts will be happy if England’s new ball proves anything like as testing as India’s had in the first part of the match. After losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Roy and Sam Billings were tested like few batsmen had been at any other stage of this series, as India’s seamers found bounce and movement from a probing line and length outside off stump and stringed together a diet of dot-balls to force a naturally aggressive duo to sit tight for their opportunities.
To both men’s credit, they did just that – although in keeping with England’s flaws throughout a series in which they have shown their ability without stamping their authority, neither man was able to press onto the sort of huge performance that India’s outstanding batsmen are currently demanding from their opponents.
Roy once again took the lead with his third fifty of the series but, having bemoaned his failure to press on past his scores of 73 at Pune and 82 at Cuttack, his 56-ball 65 was a disappointment in the circumstances. While he was in situ, however, he looked England’s best bet for another 350-plus total, as he accepted the need to exercise caution outside off while timing the ball supremely off his pads whenever the bowlers erred too straight. Four of his ten fours were pinged in that very direction as he carried England to a very healthy 97 for 0 at the drinks interval.
Alongside him, Billings played more of the holding role in his first outing since Alex Hales’ withdrawal from the tour due to a fractured hand. He was unable to score from his first ten deliveries as Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar probed away outside his off stump, and though he lifted the siege with two fours in three balls – a drive through the covers and a whip through midwicket – Jasprit Bumrah quickly underlined how much more life there was for the seamers on this deck. He tormented Billings in his opening over, a maiden that featured three plays-and-misses and an edge that fell just short of second slip.
As so often happens, however, England’s resumption after the break coincided with a critical lapse in concentration. On 35, Billings dropped to one knee to reverse-sweep Jadeja. It is one of his most productive strokes, and with a solitary man at backward point, the shot was unquestionably on as well. However, his placement was all too perfect – straight into the grateful hands of Bumrah, to prise India the opening.
Jadeja, in typical fashion, didn’t wait long to back up his efforts. He had been welcomed into the attack with a pre-meditated show of aggression from Roy, who danced down the track to slot a straight six off the first ball he had faced. But there was no disguising the hold that the left-armer has had on England’s opener, and before long he had made it three dismissals in as many innings, as Roy was teased into cutting a ball that wasn’t there for the shot. Back went his off stump, and England had slipped to 110 for 2 at the 20-over mark.
England’s progress, however, couldn’t be derailed that easily, as Eoin Morgan and Jonny Bairstow – another man who’s had to bide his time for opportunities in the one-day set-up – came together in an 84-run stand for the third wicket.
Bairstow was given his chance when Joe Root withdrew with a niggle before the toss, and responded with an important, if incomplete, 56 from 64 balls. He had two moments of fortune – first on 28, when he was caught on the uppercut at third man only for Bumrah to be shown to have over-stepped, and again on 46, when he successfully reviewed a caught-behind off Pandya – but having reached his fifty with a drilled reverse-sweep off Ravi Ashwin, his innings ended flaccidly with a half-cocked cut to point off Pandya.
By that stage, Pandya had also accounted for both Morgan and Jos Buttler – England’s most dangerous hitter – in a brilliant six-over spell that proved both incisive and restrictive. Morgan, a centurion at Cuttack, had shown once again that he’s rediscovered that pocket-battleship power that once set him apart among England one-day batsman, as he bludgeoned three sixes in his 43 from 44. But, just when he seemed set to go into overdrive, he played a loose flick off the pads as Pandya strayed too straight, and Bumrah at backward square was on hand to cut his innings off in its prime.
Buttler, by contrast, never quite got going, for the third match running. He fenced one hard-handed boundary past slip off Jadeja but fell soon afterwards on the drive – a sucker punch to short cover, as Pandya lured him with width on a full length.
Moeen Ali never got going, as Bumrah unleashed a well-directed bouncer that flicked off a top-edge into the helmet, for Jadeja to pocket a looping top-edge at backward point, and thereafter it was all about Stokes and Woakes, who made 34 from 19 balls before running himself out in the final over to give his harder-hitting partner a final swing. Stokes finished unbeaten on 57 from 39 – a satisfactory first return to a venue that holds one (or four) bad memories for him from the World T20 final. A successful defence of this total would go some way to assuaging a few of those blows.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo