‘Three wickets in three overs hurt us’ – Virat Kohli

Joe Root hadn’t topped 50 since the first ODI against Australia back on 13 June, going eight matches across formats without making a really significant contribution. But on Saturday, 14 July in the second ODI against India, he led the England batting with a superb 113 as they scored 322/7 and then stopped India at 236, the 86-run win levelling the series.

India lost three wickets with 60 on the board, but Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina collaborated for 80 runs to give them hope, but with both batsmen getting out in quick succession, the chase fell off the rails.

“I think the turning point was Virat’s dismissal because he was batting well and he was in the middle of a good partnership,” said Yuzvendra Chahal, the India leg-spinner, after the game. “When you are chasing 322, you need to have wickets in hand towards the end.

“But I think their spinners bowled well because if you see the way Moeen (Ali, 1/42) started, the boundaries weren’t coming easily. The run rate was increasing and therefore there was a little pressure on the batsmen as well. You can say that their spinners bowled really well in the middle overs.”

Kohli agreed with Chahal’s observation, adding that the Lord’s pitch changing nature in the second half of the match added to India’s problems.

“We started pretty well with the bat. It was a good wicket, it got slower but when we lost three wickets in three overs [49/0 to 60/3] that hurt us. I thought that's where we fell behind,” said Kohli.

“Today was a day when we couldn't get going. Moeen and [Adil] Rashid are both quality bowlers in this format and sensed we couldn't take risks. They created pressure in the middle overs. If it was one-down we could have attacked a bit more.”

The crowd, with a lot supporting India, didn’t like it much when MS Dhoni picked up the chase later on, but scored his 37 runs from 59 balls before becoming the eighth man out.

“We all have bad days, today was a bad day for everyone. The idea was to take the innings deep and he's got the experience. Some days it just doesn't come off,” explained Kohli.

Chahal has been overshadowed by his wrist-spin partner Kuldeep Yadav on the tour so far, and at Lord’s too, he returned 1/43 as compared to Kuldeep’s 3/68. He has gone about his job well, though, building pressure from one end with Kuldeep cashing in.

“After a couple of overs, I realised that the wicket was slow,” Chahal said. “My plan was that on this track, I should vary the pace and bowl fuller. If you bowl short on a slow track, the chances of getting hit are more. I wanted to keep it wicket-to-wicket because if the batsman misses, I have a greater chance of getting a wicket.”

Right at the end of the England innings, David Willey in particular teed off, smashing 50* in 31 balls. India conceded 88 runs in the final eight overs.

“We conceded 20-25 runs extra in the death overs,” agreed Chahal. “We must give credit to Joe Root and Willey also because they batted really well towards the end. As far as the spinners are concerned, Kuldeep and I bowled reasonably well. The wicket was different, a bit slow. If you bowled slow, batsmen were able to play us easily and there wasn’t as much turn as in the second innings.”

The third ODI will be played at Headingley on Tuesday, 17 July.