After losing their fourth consecutive series in one-day international matches at the hand of India at the Barabati Stadium on Sunday, England captain Jos Buttler came out of the game admitting they would probably have made 350 had more batters spent more time at the crease. Choosing to bat first on a black-soil pitch, Joe Root and Ben Duckett put a score of 69 and 65, respectively, while Liam Livingstone provided finishing touches with his knock of 41 as England scored 304 in 49.5 overs. At one point, they were almost cruising to get to 330 mark; but they lost their last way in the final overs losing 7 wickets in the span of 85 runs.
England got through longer but also crossed the 300 mark, though this could not stop India from winning the game, courtesy of a majestic 32nd ODI century from their captain, which led them to chase down 305 with 33 balls remaining.
“I thought we did a lot of things well; we got ourselves into some nice places with the bat but we needed a few of us to really catch fire and get to 350. Incredible innings from Rohit; he has kept doing that in ODI cricket for some time. Maybe it skidded on a bit and played well; however, the opposition played well. We tried to get to 330-350; maybe that would have been defendable. Keep moving in the right direction; the results might not be there, but keep moving ahead,” Buttler said in a post-match presentation ceremony.
India’s vice-captain Shubman Gill was able to make 60 runs and share a standing of 136 runs off 100 deliveries with Rohit at the start of the innings and said he enjoyed his time batting in the middle and had fun sharing with the captain.
“Was feeling good when I was batting out there and obviously batting with Rohit bhai, he makes it look easy. The way he took on the bowlers, we have seen that in the last couple of years how he has batted in ODIs and the way he dominated the bowlers today was a treat to watch. It was a good wicket to bat on, the odd ball was keeping a bit low but overall a good wicket. The chat was simple, just play according to the ball and try and dominate when you can,” he added. The final ODI between India and England will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
