Sensational Bairstow-Stokes Batting Powers England To Tremendous Win Over India, Paytm ODI Series Level at 1-1!

 Jonny Bairstow

When a team chases a down a massive target of 337 runs with plenty of overs to spare you can only watch wonder-struck at the sensational batting display that has to be the cause of it and cannot really blame the rival team. England have done this tonight, overcoming the Indian target that looked quite formidable very easily at the end thanks to the spectacular batting performances of all the top three: Jason Roy notching up 55 off 52 balls falling to a terrible run-out; Jonny Bairstow registering a magnificent ton of 124 off just 112 balls; and most importantly, Ben Stokes scoring an incredible 99 in just 52 balls, getting out caught 1 run away from what could have been a memorable century. There were 24 fours and unbelievable 20 sixes (10 of those go to Stokes) in their victorious innings. At one stage of the game they were scoring almost 20 runs an over with Bairstow and Stokes firing all cylinders in their partnership of 175 runs. So then, England won the second one-day international match by 6 wickets with more than 6 overs to spare, thus levelling the Paytm ODI Series at 1-1 in Pune today.

 

Ben Stokes

The Indian players on the field, particularly Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, showed their frustration and irritation quite clearly quite frequently as they looked helplessly at most of their bowlers being hit mercilessly by the England batsmen all around the park with consummate ease. Except for Bhubaneshwar Kumar who too got hit at the death overs, all other India bowlers, particularly Kuldeep Yadav, could not make any impression on the English marauding batsmen. The first wicket of Roy came in the form a run-out thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding by Rohit Sharma, after the first partnership of 110 runs with Bairstow in the 17^th over. When India did manage to get three quick wickets in Stokes, Bairstow and Buttler it was too late, because the devastatingly definitive batting left plenty of balls to get the required runs. Curiously for India, both the Pandya brothers continued to play and Hardik Pandya not bowling a single over. Rishabh Pant was brought in replacing Shreyas Iyer who unfortunately got injured in the last match while fielding and was ruled out not only for this series but also for the forthcoming IPL-2021.

 

The batting of the Indians, of a very high order no doubt, goes into oblivion as this failed to win the match for them. Consistent with regained form KL Rahul scored a ton, captain Kohli a half century and Pant and Hardik played explosive innings of 77 (40 balls) and 35 (16 balls) respectively. If one compares the top English batsmen with the Indian counterparts one can see the difference, Indians consuming more balls for the runs scored: Dhawan’s 4 in 17 balls; Kohli’s 66 in 79 balls; and Rahul’s 108 in 114 balls. However, their final score of 336/6 still looked very challenging.

 

There were a few changes in the England team for this match: Liam Livingstone making his ODI debut; Dawid Malan coming in place of injured Sam Billings (I was wondering about him as he was in top form in the T20Is, but the practice of playing only ‘specialized’ players for various formats nowadays leaves out in-form and most useful batsmen in the wilderness on many occasions for many teams); pacer Reece Topley making a comeback after years, replacing Mark Wood; and captain Morgan ruling himself out due to injury. Taking into account the last two T20I matches England have won the toss for the fourth time in a row. English spinner duo Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid bowled much more effectively than the Indian duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya.

 

Now, 28^thMarch is going to be a super Sunday when the cracker of a decider is going to be played between World Champions and No.1 team England and No.2 India. The pressure at the moment seems to be more on India after their bowlers miserably failed to defend a massive total today. Apart from that there is nothing much to choose from the two teams. However, it’s time Virat Kohli wins a toss!

Neutralizing The Toss For The Third Time India Beat England In The 1st ODI: A Case Of Constants & Variables?

In the first one-day international (ODI) of the three-match Series played in Pune India have beaten England by 66 runs yesterday, taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Like the last few matches this game too was played to empty stadiums due to the second wave of COVID-19 virus in India. India’s captain Virat Kohli lost the toss yet again, for the third time in a row taking into account the last two T20 internationals, and it proved to be a good toss to lose, yet again. It was heartening to see India’s regular opening pair, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, coming in to open the innings. Perhaps this being the first match of the series India started very cautiously to avoid the oft-repeated first-match blues, and concentrated on doing the groundwork for a good total. However, they did not get into a shell which also proves to be India’s undoing on many occasions. In the power-play overs they managed to put up 64 runs when Rohit departed for 28 off 42 balls.     

 

The first hundred-run partnership of the Indian innings was achieved between Dhawan and Virat Kohli, and Kohli fell to Mark Wood for 56 off 60 balls at the team score of 169 in the 33^rd over. Shreyas Iyer, coming in at no.4, became Wood’s second victim at the team score of 187 in the 35^th over. The player-of-the-match Dhawan had been going on steadily at the other hand, but unfortunately he could not accomplish the landmark of a ton and fell to Ben Stokes for 98 runs in the 39^thover at the team score of 197. When big-hitter Hardik Pandya followed suit immediately for just 1 run to give Stokes this third wicket India were in some spot of bother, because at 5 down for 205 in the 41^st over the ideal target of 300+ runs looked distant with only KL Rahul as the recognized batsman and who had been doing poorly despite the rigorous restoration project undertaken for him by the team management.

 

However, Hardik’s brother Krunal Pandya, making his debut in the ODI format, changed it all, and as a welcome change Rahul started playing fluently. The second hundred-run partnership of the innings, the longer and the game-changing one, happened between the duo with the strikingly dominant partner Krunal making 58 not out off just 31 balls and Rahul making 62 not out in 43 balls. India crossed the 300-mark and put up a challenging target of 318 for England to win. In modern ODI cricket the 300+ landmark is no longer unassailable and it seemed that India fell short by about twenty runs.

 

As if to exacerbate such fears in the minds of the Indian fans England opening pair Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow started in the most destructive manner, notching up incredible 135 runs in the 15^th over. The formidable asking rate now had become very manageable under 6 an over, and with wickets in hand the game shifted dramatically to England’s favour. At that point of time another debutant for India ODIs, pacer Prasidh Krishna, captured the crucial wicket of Roy (46) and then cutting short Ben Stokes for just 1 run.

 

The fall of Bairstow to Shardul Thakur for 94 off 66 balls delivered another death blow to England’s aspirations, at 169/3 in the 23^rd over. After that the combination of Krishna (4/54) and Thakur (3/37) ensured England losing wickets at regular intervals with Bhubaneshwar Kumar, economical as ever, joining in at the end for 2 wickets. Sensational debutant Krunal also opened his wicket account with a solitary one. Finally, England were all out for 250 in the 43^rdover which meant that but for the lack of enough wickets in hand the visitors were always in the chase.

 

With tremendous bench strength building up all the time for India, particularly the emergence of of quite a few promising fast bowlers, Team India seems to be swimming in a stream of constants and variables. The number of constants in the team seems to be dwindling from time to time in favour of the variables. See, India have achieved the last victories without the services of their main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah, not to speak of another stalwart all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Of course, there have been contradictions in retaining non-performing constants, like the rigorous restoration project for KL Rahul and hark!—captain Kohli never looks at the prospect of experimenting with himself! This curious syndrome of ‘constants and variables’ should continue to work for India if not taken out of bounds. With the kind of experimentation going on it is not certain if Prasidh and Krunal are going to figure in the next team for the second ODI at all. Performing players should always be rewarded consistently and non-performing ones should be made to realize how precious and competitive the positions in Team India have become of late.

The Lockdown Roti!

From January of the year called 2020 onwards we had been constantly getting reports of the havoc created by the SARS-Cov-2 or the COVID-19 virus in various pockets of China. From February of the same year stray cases were being reported from some parts of India and from the month of March cases were on an unmistakable rise, particularly in the states of Kerala and Maharashtra. We were also hearing about the dangerous spread in several European countries, and we even saw on television how normal ebullient parts of countries like Italy and Spain were looking like ghost cities because of the lockdown. But somehow, at that point of time neither the Indian authorities nor the public took it seriously and perhaps was not aware of the incredibly fast human-to-human transmission that the virus was capable of. Not surprising at all, because even the World Health Organization did not know much at that time. Lockdown was also a novel concept for us and many thought that lockdown was not a realistic measure for a vastly populated country like India where a huge chunk of the population were daily wage earners (in fact, this reality led to the blackest chapter in the Indian lockdown history). So, hardly anybody was surprised when we were headed for Mumbai in Maharashtra by mid-March; we had to go there because of some important personal work.

 

Things were mostly normal in March 2020 except for the closure of schools and colleges. As we reached the Kolkata airport the activities were as usual except for the fact that it was not crowded as earlier and the flight was half-empty. Wearing of masks was not considered essential at that time, and there was a school of thought that healthy people never needed the masks. Anyway, we were given special seats on the plane with free food without any extra cost. At arrival we found the Mumbai airport exceptionally empty and even eerie, but there was no screening, and quarantine was not even heard of as a preventive measure till then.

 

Things started unfolding very fast from late March 2020. National Lockdown was announced from the 25^th of March, and stay-home became the only option available. Compulsory wearing of masks, hand sanitization, thermal checks and social distancing became the norms. As the months rolled by we were getting concerned about our locked home in Kolkata. As the much-delayed COVID-19 peak finally was reached by mid-September and cases started falling from October onwards we started making plans for the journey back, from the month of November. But thanks to various domestic reasons other than the pandemic the plans were getting postponed again and again. The escalation of cases happening in Kerala from February 2021 which was later picked up by Maharashtra made us act immediately as one more lockdown was staring at us.

 

Finally, as it happened, we returned exactly after one year. Arriving at our building I was scared to unlock the house, not knowing what to expect or find inside. We had no experience in our lifetime of having a house locked up for one full year and then coming back. However, everything looked in place as we moved around inside the rooms. Except for a layer of dust, which was only normal, there was not much disorder, and there was no sign of fungus taking over. Even the spider webs were noticeable only in the closed window seals.

I entered the kitchen, a crucial place that always needs to be activated at the earliest. Fortunately, everything looked to be in place here too. Of course, all the food items and cereals left behind were all beyond expiry and smelling. With a healthy thought building up within me about making a steaming cup of tea as soon as possible I spotted a hot case neatly placed in a corner of the kitchen slab. As much out of curiosity as out of habit I lifted the lid. And lo! A roti stared back at me!

 

Good heavens! The roti looked as if it were made only a little while back. It looked perfectly normal, even with the blackish spots or creases that materialize on both sides while cooking it on a hot tawa intact; no blackening otherwise or nets of enveloping fungus. It sort of beckoned at me: one year or not, you can still have me if you want! How that roti got forgotten was something we could never hope to establish.

 

Well, we had been telling our friends about this wonder, and everyone was heartily surprised, some calling it a miracle. Okay, air could not infiltrate the container, but normally a roti hardens and blackens out in about three to four days, wherever may it be kept. My wife had still been preserving it in its wonder-case, for how long I wouldn’t know! Crux of the matter being that the lockdown or the pandemic had no impact on this robust roti!