By Chanakya Ch
The Indian men’s cricket team defeated England in the recent One-Day series between India and England. The three match ODI series is one of the best that the team has played in a long time.
The big hero for the Indian team was Shubman Gill who scored a century (112 of 102 balls) which made the win easy for India, although India lost two quick wickets in the beginning. Harshith Rana made a great comeback on debut after being smacked for 26 runs in one over, along with bowling down three wickets. Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell tried to revive but Ravindra Jadeja chipped 3 wickets. Shreyas Iyer’s half century helped India win easily. India won the first match by 4 wickets.
India continued to dominate England in the second ODI match held at Cuttack. Ravindra Jadeja took 3 wickets. England had a decent partnership but fell short of wickets. Captain Rohit Sharma showed his pure class by scoring 119 runs in 90 balls, he was positive with his batting from the beginning.
Rohit Sharma was awarded the Player of the match. In the post-match press conference he said,’I accessed the gaps and obviously I got good support from Gill and then Shreyas. We enjoyed batting with each other, Gill is a very classy player. I have seen him from close quarters and he doesn’t get overawed by the situation. The numbers are there as well if I’m not wrong.’
India was strong going into the 3rd ODI. Indian men have ticked boxes with Sharma and Virat Kohli making runs in the series. Shubman Gill was solid and showed his pure class through the series and was awarded the Player of the Tournament. Iyer showed his prominence and used the opportunity while scoring two half-centuries in the 3 matches with lowest score being 44. KL Rahul displayed his keeping skills which was a huge plus point for the team. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja were also in good form. Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav angled the ball quite well through the series.
India will now look to show their dominance in the Champions Trophy starting from 19 February while India playing their first match against Bangladesh on 20 February.