India vs England: India have no place to hide at Green Park

However, England was lucky to have Eoin Morgan on the central square. The left-hander, fresh from an emphatic ton in Cuttack last week, looked composed. Together, the duo stitched together a match-winning stand of 83 runs for the third wicket to help England seal a comfortable seven-wicket win against India. Having benefited from a robust start upfront — Morgan and Root were willing to bide their time. Keeping a close eye on the scoreboard, they played a few quiet overs after the Powerplay. Not once did they panic, and never did the run-rate rising alarmingly. Morgan opened up in the 10th over with a humongous six over long-on. He was also particularly severe against the spinners, particularly part-timer Suresh Raina.

The England captain’s assertive batsmanship helped Root settle down. For most part of the innings, Root played the second fiddle, upping his tally with a series of ones and twos. He did smack a couple of boundaries — one each of Chahal and Pandya respectively — by then England had already raced past the 100-run mark in the 12th over. Morgan reached his half century in style — smoking debutant Rasool for a six. He would depart on the very next ball. By then, the game was as good as over, with England needing only 25 runs from the remaining 27 deliveries.

Under the circumstances, the 30-year-old’s knock was worth its weight in gold. His innings was an exhibition of skill and poise. Not once did he go for the slog. Every time he targeted the boundary, he managed to clear it with ease. Four sixes and a boundary punctuated his knock of 51. True, England were not staring at a huge total, but the twin dismissals of their openers did put them under a bit of strife. Morgan was undaunted by the setback as he sealed the deal for England.

The England captain is your quintessential modern day cricketer. He plays in the shorter formats and thrives in it. Be it the exquisite cover drive, or the unconventional one-legged scoop shot on the leg-side, he has several shorter-version weapons. With over 170 ODIs and 65 T20s under his name, he is now a seasoned pro, who has made a habit of orchestrating well-constructed wins. Somehow, India’s image of being cricket’s ‘final frontier’ doesn’t intimidate the English captain.

This is Morgan’s third trip to India in the last eight months. He was here for last year’s World T20 and then returned two months later for the IPL. Root on the other hand, too had been on an Indian sojourn, criss-crossing the country since October last year, featuring in all the five Tests and the two ODIs. In the end, it was only fitting that the 26-year-old would score the winning runs with two overs remaining.

Later at the post-match press conference, Morgan chose to credit his bowlers for the win. The combined efforts of England’s pace bowlers and off-spinner Moeen Ali helped them restrict India to a below par score of 147 on a pretty placid batting track. “Our bowlers were outstanding tonight, Moeen Ali in particular showed great resolve. We showed a lot of experience, and Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan put their hands up in very important roles. They made it very hard for the Indian batsmen on a small ground. Sam Billings and Jason Roy did outstandingly well, Sam has taken his two chances when he’s had the opportunity,” he said.

The Rashid conundrum

It was a pretty bizarre day for England’s leg-spinner Adil Rashid. He would be delighted by his team’s comprehensive seven-wicket win, however, he would be ruing the fact that he had very little role to play in the field today. Rashid is picked in the side for his bowling.

However, Morgan did not give him even a single over today. While Moeen Ali picked up two wickets and walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award, Rashid spent the entire Indian innings, either manning the boundary line or fielding at fine-leg. Green Park’s shorter boundaries and a placid track could have made captain Morgan a tad circumspect about his leggie’s potency against India’s big-hitters. Having said that, Rashid did find a mention on the scoreboard because of his two catches.