India sealed a series win by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 2nd ODI against England at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. The trajectory of the second ODI was similar to the first one in some ways, but still different enough.
England won the toss, chose to bat, and got off to a flier. This one mostly because of Ben Duckett (65 off 56). But as the story has been pf this tour, England’s middle order came undone against spin in the middle overs. Ravindra Jadeja (3/35) ran an extremely tight ship in the middle overs, which helped India negate the best efforts of Joe Root (69 off 72). England resurged towards the end with some timely knocks that took them past the 300 run-mark. None of it mattered an hour and a half later.
Rohit Sharma (119 off 90) continued with the approach that has seen him reinvent himself as an opener in ODIs. Although the start was slow, Rohit found his mojo and attacked any and every bowler that dared to come his way. Sharma once again reached an individual fifty inside the powerplay itself and put up a stand of 136 with Shubman Gill (60 off 52) who was more than happy letting Rohit do his job. Both Gill and Virat Kohli were dismissed in quick succession, but Rohit continued his relentless assault until his departure left the result a formality. Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel chipped in with forties, but even a late order collapse could not keep India from managing a series win.
Here are the best stats highlights from the game:
50 – This match marked Rohit Sharma’s 50th ODI as captain. He has now won 36 of them.
2 – At 33 years and 164 days old, Varun Chakravarthy became India’s second oldest ODI debutant.
1 – Joe Root made his 56th score of 50 or more in ODIs and broke the England record previously held by Eoin Morgan.
2 – Rohit Sharma ended his 6-month old tie with Chris Gayle and became the player with the second most sixes in ODIs with 338. Shahid Afridi leads the pack with 351 while Gayle has 331 ODI sixes.
3 – Rohit Sharma’s 49th century in international cricket moved him past Rahul Dravid’s 48 and into third position on the list of Indian players with the most centuries in international cricket. Only Virat Kohli (81) and Sachin Tendulkar (100) have more.
10 – Rohit Sharma moved past Rahul Dravid’s career tally of 10,889 ODI runs and entered into the top 10 ODI run-getters of all time. Among Indians, Rohit is the fourth highest run-getter in ODIs.
2 – Rohit Sharma became only the second player to amass 30 centuries as an opener in ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar with 45 has the most.
2 – Rohit Sharma now has the second most runs by an Indian player as an opener in international cricket. Rohit took his tally to 15,404 runs going past Sachin Tendulkar’s 15,335. Virender Sehwag (16,119) is in the top spot.
2 – This century, reached in 75 balls, was Rohit Sharma’s second fastest in that respect. His fastest century is the one he reached in 63 balls against Afghanistan in the 2023 World Cup.
19 – This match was India’s 19th successful chase of a target of 300 or more in ODIs, the most by any team. England are a distant second with 14 such chases.
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