India once again proved their mettle against England, winning the second ODI by a crushing four-wicket margin. Facing England at Cuttack, the hosts delivered yet another excellent display to clinch the three-match ODI series, taking a 2-0 lead. India takes great comfort in the return to form of captain Rohit Sharma, who broke his indifferent patch with a brilliant hundred to complete the chase in 44.3 overs against a target of 305. Star batter Virat Kohli, however, had yet another dismal show, scoring only five runs from eight balls.
Kohli was dismissed in the 20th over by Adil Rashid, with the star spinner trapping him at his biggest weakness-the outside edge. Whereas before this young man did not pay any attention to it, this time around, the ball touched the edge, and wicketkeeper Phil Salt made no mistake with a brilliant catch behind the stumps.
As Kohli walked back, most of his fans scattered, blaming captain Jos Buttler for his dismissal. Just one ball before the dismissal, Kohli pushed another delivery outside off through the covers off Rashid.
It went to the keeper, Buttler, who then flung it back toward Kohli and quickly raised his hand in apology. Kohli too gestured that it was all right as he raised his hand back.
But this moment did not go unnoticed by Kohli’s fans, who took to social media blaming Buttler for distracting Kohli.
Buttler commended Rohit after the game, noting the match-winning century and saying that his batters need to step up the next time to direct the team to victory.
“I think we did many things well; we earned a good position with the bat. We just needed someone to accelerate us toward 350. Hats off to Rohit; he has batted fabulously. He has been batting in this way on ODIs for a few years now. Wanted to get runs on the board, it skidded on a bit and opposition also played well,” added Buttler during the post-match presentation.
“We played the powerplay really well; we needed someone to kick on at least about 330-350 should have been defendable. Well, just keep taking steps in the right direction; not quite the results yet, but let’s keep going and be positive,” he added.
