England were chased down in crushing, exhilarating fashion as Virat Kohli produced an innings of regal brilliance to help India pass England’s highest ever total against them with 11 balls to spare. There was also a stunning hundred from the 31-year-old local boy Kedar Jadhav, who played his part in a hall-of-famer fifth-wicket partnership of 200 in 25 overs as England were reduced to haring about in the dusty night air watching the ball sail into the stands.
This was a wonderful, mixed-up, muddled-up game of 50-over cricket, a one-day international for the T20 era. “I told Kedar, ‘If we get to 150, they are going to press the panic button. Watch’,” Kohli said afterwards of that rampaging partnership. But England did not panic. They were dogged in the field. If anything their plans for Kohli sounded basic to non-existent, with Eoin Morgan suggesting afterwards, and apparently not in jest, that England’s best hope had been to bowl to the guy at the other end. The guy at the other end scored India’s second fastest one-day hundred ever. As with the first Test before Christmas, England might just have missed their best chance in the series.
Throughout the white-ball revolutions of the Trevor Bayliss era there has been a sense this is an England team of two halves: venomous skill and aggression with the bat; and a lack of equivalent craft with the ball. At the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium the high-rev batting machine of the last year and a half clicked into gear, led by some fine late hitting from Ben Stokes. In reply, India’s top order subsided in the purple Pune dusk, stuttering to 63 for 4 off 11.5 overs when Yuvraj Singh was out. At which point, enter: the Prince.
Kohli has an extraordinary presence on Indian cricket grounds, his ambling, skinny-Viv swagger to the crease a wonderful piece of athletic theatre. Here he kicked off with jaw-dropping bravado, walking out and lifting his fifth ball from David Willey for a six over long-on. “Kohli!” the crowds chanted as Chris Woakes was eased wristily through cover and mid-on. Afterwards Kohli was asked if he surprises himself with his own shots. “Yes, sometimes,” was his reply.
For a while, as India’s captain played with a beautifully angry sense of purpose, there was a feeling England could afford to watch and wait. Steadily, though, the match began to turn. Stokes and Adil Rashid went at close to 10 an over in that middle period as India’s batsmen hit fearlessly on a flat pitch. Kohli’s hundred came up off his 93rd delivery, swung high over mid-on for his fourth six, a man not really playing the situation, the pitch or the opposition, but simply bringing his own uncontainable talent to bear on anything England’s seven bowlers put before him.
India had won the toss earlier in the day and decided to chase. For England Jake Ball got the call ahead of Liam Plunkett. The Maharashtra is a great open, new-build, out-of-town thing, the crowd bearing down from the great craning stand at one end. Under hazy skies Jason Roy kicked off in familiar fashion, yawning Hardik Pandya away through cover and wide mid-off. The first wicket fell at 39, Alex Hales apparently surprised by a pinged direct hit at the non-strikers’ end from backward square leg by Jasprit Bumrah.
Roy’s sixth ODI half-century came up off 36 balls but he was out on 73 walking past one from Ravindra Jadeja. Eoin Morgan was caught behind off a feathered nick from Pandya. Jos Buttler was caught slapping a low head-height catch to Shikhar Dhawan at mid-off the ball after he had been hit on the grille by a bouncer. Joe Root batted with Trott-like caution, bringing up his 50 off a diligent 72 balls.
At 220 for 4 in the 38th over, England needed someone to press home a decent position. They found their man in Stokes, who played with controlled power and took a particular liking to Bumrah, who sends the ball down with a kind of disco-style star jump, finger pointing dramatically skywards, an action that seems to demand he charges into the wicket in white flares and a floppy-collared shirt. Stokes’s fifty came off 33 balls as 72 runs came from 30 balls up to the end of the 47th over.
As dusk closed in a target of 351 looked distant but not insurmountable, the India innings kicking off in a parping, squealing din. Willey found early swing and drew an edge from Dhawan’s scythe, Moeen Ali holding the catch at third man. Dhawan walked off to wild cheers. No offence, Shikhar. But, you know. He’s here. Before long Yuvraj Singh was strangled by a Stokes slower ball and trudged off at a mournful Delhi-traffic pace. MS Dhoni came, flashed and was gone, skying a catch to mid-on off Ball to draw a sudden velvety hush around the 37,000 full house.
And so, with 288 runs still required, it came down to Kohli and Jadhav versus England. Kohli played dreamily from the start, Jadhav with real belligerence, swiping England’s spinners around to stunning effect en route to a 65-ball hundred. Kohli eventually departed for an exhilarating 122 off 105 balls, skying a Stokes off-break slower ball that probably qualified as the best piece of English spin bowling all day. Jadhav swung Ball high into the stands over long-off and midwicket, and England’s bowlers had no answer as the pressure mounted, Ravi Ashwin winning the game with a final six.
