England draw level with 86-run win - Mumbai Indians

At the halfway stage, England were sitting pretty at 152/1 with India desperately looking in search of a breakthrough.Eoin Morgan attacked Suresh Raina forcing Virat Kohli to bring back Kuldeep Yadav.

Brief Scores:

England 322/7 (50) Joe Root 113 (116) Eoin Morgan 53 (51) David Willey 50* (31) Kuldeep Yadav 3/68 Yuzvendra Chahal 1/43

India 236 (50) Suresh Raina 46 (63) Virat Kohli 45 (56) MS Dhoni 37 (59) Liam Plunkett 4/46 Adil Rashid 2/38

A solid ton from Joe Root and a combined effort from England’s bowlers ensured that the hosts stayed alive in the three-match series with a massive 86-run win at Lord’s on Saturday.

England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and surprisingly, elected to bat first. Virat Kohli was pleased with the decision. India wanted to bowl first on a Lord’s turf which had a green tinge. Both teams remain unchanged as Jason Roy got England off the mark with a first ball boundary, once again, to Umesh Yadav.

Hardik Pandya replaced Umesh as soon as the fifth over and started off well, conceding just four runs, going past the bat of the English openers on a couple of occasions. Jason Roy however, attacked him in his next over, hitting him for 17 runs.

England got past the fifty-run mark in the 8th over and finished with 69 runs at the end of the mandatory powerplay when India introduced Kuldeep Yadav.

On Yadav’s second ball, an unlucky Jonny Bairstow (38) lost his timber from a delivery that first hit his pad and then ricocheted off the gloves. Joe Root walked out at number three as England played Kuldeep better, waiting for the ball on the backfoot.

But Jason Roy (40) fell to him, trying to smash him over the midwicket boundary. England skipper Eoin Morgan joined forces with Root as England kept scoring at a brisk pace with minimal risk.

The duo had a certain plan in mind -- to see off the wrist spin of Chahal and Kuldeep and attack the seamers. At the halfway stage, England were sitting pretty at 152/1 with India desperately looking in search of a breakthrough.

Eoin Morgan attacked Suresh Raina forcing Virat Kohli to bring back Kuldeep Yadav. Joe Root at the other end had put an end to his poor string of scores, scoring a half-century that England needed to put up a respectable score.

Morgan (53) got a dolly from Kuldeep but couldn’t find the desired connection and hit the full toss straight to Shikhar Dhawan at deep-midwicket. The third wicket partnership had lasted for 98 balls, yielding 103 crucial runs for the hosts when Ben Stokes walked in.

Hardik Pandya returned for a spell and forced Ben Stokes to edge one behind the stumps. Umesh Yadav too joined the party when he got rid of Jos Buttler curtailing England’s run flow.

Joe Root was stranded on one end but found support from Moeen Ali as England started to rebuild again before Rohit Sharma, running from long-on, covered a good distance, dived to his left and took a stunner.

Yuzvendra Chahal got his first wicket with England being reduced to 239/6 in the 42nd over. Joe Root needed someone to bat with him from the other end and he found support from David Willey.

Root played second fiddle as David Willey took the attack to the Indians, hitting them to the cleaners. India’s seamers and Kuldeep Yadav took a beating with Joe Root completing his first ODI ton at Lord’s.

Willey on the other end, hit five fours and six in his 31-ball 50-run knock. This 85-run stand between Root and Willey had propelled England to 322/7 at the end of their 50 overs.

Only once had any visiting team chased down a total in excess of 300 at Lord’s in an ODI. 16-years back, Sourav Ganguly’s team India had stunned the world to achieve this feat.

With a mountain to climb, Shikhar Dhawan played the aggressor’s role while Rohit took time on the other end. England finally found a way to dismiss Rohit Sharma when he danced down the ground and missed an off-cutter from Wood to return for 15.

But once Rohit fell, India lost Dhawan (36) and KL Rahul (0) in quick succession. Suddenly, the visitors had gone from 49/0 to 60/3 in pursuit of 323. Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli got together to keep India in the chase. The duo kept the scoreboard ticking adding 50 runs in the next 10 overs.

India went without hitting a boundary from 13.4 overs to 23.2 overs before Rashid was welcomed to the crease with a four through covers. England’s second spinner, Moeen Ali, had just conceded 6 runs from his first three overs.

At the halfway stage, India had managed 132/3 with another 191 runs to win. Just when the visitors needed to accelerate, Moeen Ali struck and dismissed Virat Kohli for 45. Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali tightened the screws and forced Raina to play a risky shot, causing his downfall for 46.

MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya (21) added 37 runs for the 6th wicket before Morgan brought Liam Plunkett back into the attack and broke the partnership. Umesh Yadav was stumped for a second ball-duck as England inched closer to a win.

MS Dhoni’s resistance finally came to an end in the 47th over when he holed out to Ben Stokes in the deep for a 59-ball 37. Siddharth Kaul (1) followed Dhoni in the same over.

Kuldeep Yadav (8*) and Yuzvendra Chahal (12) played out the remaining overs before the latter was dismissed on the last ball to hand England an 86-run win.

The series will now be decided in Headingley on July 17.

Source: