Key events
And, with that, time for me to say goodbye. England have won just one game on their Indian white-ball adventure – and the Champions Trophy draws ever closer. There is a single ODI to go before that starts, a final match at Ahmedabad on Wednesday – starting at 8am GMT. We’ll be here, do join us.
Rohit Sharma
“It was good, really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. An important game, series on the line as well. I really broke it down into pieces, how I wanted to bat, assessing what you need to do at regular intervals, was important for a batter who gets set to bat as deep as possible, and that was my focus.
“Obviously, looking at the pitch, when you play on black soil the ball can skid on a bit, important to show the full face of the bat, but later on…when England were bowling at my body, trying to access the gaps.. all about trying to understand what you are trying to do as a batter. And good support from Gill and Shreyas as well.”
“Gill is a very very classy player, doesn’t seem to get overawed by the situation, just so classy to watch from the other end.
“The middle overs are very important, keep taking wickest and that’s how you stop the run scoring. We want to keep getting better as a team, there is nothing specific to work on but keep working on ourselves and as a team.”
Jos Buttler
Looks like a really quite cross man who keeps remembering he’s been told to smile, like Gordon Brown as PM. “I thought we again did things well, we just need a few of us to catch fire and push on to 350 and credit to Rohit …for another great innings. We thought it looked a good wicket, maybe it skidded on a bit, I thought we played well but the opposition played better. We should have just found another gear and kicked on and maybe that would have been defendable.”
And for the future. “Just to keep making steps in the right direction.”
In the studio, Steven Finn is looking for positives… “Mark Wood is bowling quick… but the middle overs are something England are going to have to look at – need something like what Liam Plunkett was doing, making sure teams don’t have those power hitters there towards the end.”
Matt Prior: “The worry is how easily India chased that down, ok they lost a few wickets before the end but I think that was just boredom.”
And there’s nothing like absence making the heart grow fonder. Finn is pining for “someone like Liam Dawson, someone with that skill set in these conditions would be a really great addition, but he’s not in the squad so England can only work with what they’ve got.”
Some sobering stats for England’s men ahead of the Champions Trophy: they’ve lost their last four ODI series, and only won two of their last nine white-ball series.
Shubman Gill “I was feeling good, Rohit makes things much easier than what it is. I think the way he dominated the fast bowlers today was great to watch. It was a good wicket to bat on, the odd ball was skidding a bit. The chat was simple (with Rohit), once you are set try to go big and dominate the game when you can.”
Many, many fireworks as the teams shake hands. The series India’s, and England must lick their wounds once again. A decent effort with the bat but England had no answer to a master-class from Rohit at his absolute best.
India beat England by four wickets and take the ODI series 2-0 (3).
44.3 overs India 308-6 (Axar 41, Jadeja 11)Root reduces the equation with a wide and Jadeja finsihes things off with a kiss-me-quick drive through the covers for four. Done and dusted with 34 balls to spare.
44th over India 302-6 (Axar 40, Jadeja 7) Atkinson’s seventh over. He’s still sprinting in, toe to toe shuffle. Jadeja on-drives him, sweet as, for four. An overthrow from the last ball. Three needed for the win.
43rd over India 294-6 (Axar 38, Jadeja 2) Joe Root can’t work some miracles. India re-engage the collective brain, nine come from Root’s over, including a cut for four from Axar.
WICKET! Hardik c Overton b Atkinson 10 (India 286-6)
42nd over India 286-6 (Axar 31) Hardik rides his luck – getting an edge off Atkinson which flies over Salt’s head for four, a funky wristy straight drive which bounces just short of Atkinson’s follow through – but finally falls to the last ball of the over, pulling a bouncer from Atkinson, and picking out the tallest man on the field. India need 19 from 48 balls.
41st over India 276-5 (Axar 30, Hardik 1) India making heavy weather of these last few overs.
WICKET! Rahul c Salt b Overton 10 (India 275-5)
Overton again! Digs in a short ball but Rahul is too quick on it and ends up edging it through to Salt who takes a smart catch.
40th over India 275-4 (Axar 30, KL Rahul 10) Outside my window, the sky is uniform dreary grey and a woman passes zipped up to the gunwales. Continents away, KL Rahul is content for singles, but Axar stretches, drops to one knee and slog-sweeps Livingstone for four. Is given out next ball (caught? lbw?) but reviews immediately – he hasn’t got bat on ball and the ball is pitching outside off stump.
39th over India 268-4 (Axar 25, KL Rahul 8) KL Rahul greets an Overton bouncer by spinning on his toes and hooking it down and for four. The cameras pan to Hardik Pandya who prowls outside the dugout. India need 37 to win.
38th over India 261-4 (Axar 24, KL Rahul 2) Livingstone whistles through another over – England’s man of the match today. Handy with bat, ball and swooping in at the rope.
WICKET! Shreyas run out (Buttler) 44 (India 258-4)
Terrible bit of running by India. Shreyas gets half the way down the pitch before he realises that Axar isn’t moving. Decent throw by Buttler at midwicket and Rashid does the rest.
37th over India 258-4 (Axar 23, KL Rahul 0) Rashid, who hasn’t been quite at his best today, finishes his spell with a wicket, if only from a run out. Five from the over, 1-78 from his ten.
36th over India 253-3 ( Shreyas 42, Axar 20) Five singles from Livingstone’s over – who now has a very respectable 5- 0-19-1.
35th over India 247-3 ( Shreyas 38, Axar 18) Wristy sweep for four? There you go madam, says Axar Patel, picking up Rashid in cocky style. Later in the over, some smart fielding on the boundary by Livingstone prevents another four. India casually picking up runs and stuffing them in their deep pockets.
34th over India 237-3 ( Shreyas 35, Axar 11) Liam Livingstone nearly does it again, with a full toss that Shreyas launches at but misses. India content to just gently take it down from here.
“My take is that every stage of the measurement and the calculation should have determinable standard deviations,” writes Paul Edgington, “i.e. what is the accuracy by which they can determine the balls position at any point in flight in mm, etc? I think that multiple calculations should be done with all the permutations of the extremes and if any result in not out, it’s not out, but if all result in out decisions, even if one or more of the extreme values would currently be umpires call, then it’s out. So rather than a single trajectory, as now, it would be like a gradually increasing cone along the path showing all the possible trajectories given the known limitations for determining location, speed and movement from swing/spin.”
This is beginning to stretch my C in GCSE maths.
33rd over India 233-3 ( Shreyas 32, Axar 10) Mahmood again. Just a fistful of singles. 71 needed off 102 balls.
Arul Kanhere strokes his (metaphorical?) beard “Nasser Hussain explained how the Umpire’s call also kept the stumps to their actual size, in the sense that if umpire’s call was clipping bails and that was supposed to mean “hitting” then all umpires would definitely give it out all the time, effectively increasing the size of the stumps according to the width of the ball.”
32nd over India 230-3 ( Shreyas 32, Axar 7) Axar joins the boundary party, slapping a full toss from Livingstone square for four. A fabulous one handed stop by Saqib Mahmood at point, but while the batters make a Horlicks of a single, Salt fumbles the return and England miss a chance to get rid of Axar. Drinks, I think.
31st over India 222-3 ( Shreyas 31, Axar 1) Mahomood returns, and leaks only a couple of runs.
30th over India 220-3 ( Shreyas 30, Axar 0) The breakthrough! But surely too late. Liam Livingstone takes his cap and struts into the grassy surrounds. A wonderful innings from Rohit, a true digestif for the week.
“If there is a reliable „tracking algorithm to calculate probability of the umpire being in error” then Brian Withington’s idea is founded on firm ground. Is there?” asks Henry Lubienski. “And if there is, could a sufficient portion of the cricketing community be persuaded that there is? Involving increased scientific evidence into the process could only be welcomed.”
WICKET! Rohit cRashid b Livingstone 119 (India 220-3)
Gallops down the pitch, eager for a six, but gets a bottom edge, skies the ball into the night, and Rashid catches a steepler with both hands.
29th over India 218-2 (Rohit 118, Shreyas 29) With the field up Shreyas flicks Wood over mid-on for four. And again, bigger, bolder, landing closer to the rope. Wood finishes the over with a bouncer, that Shreyas takes from his eyebrows, Botham style, and hooks for SIX. The target, incidentally, has now dropped to double figures.
28th over India 201-2 (Rohit 116, Shreyas 14) You could only slide a piece of tissue paper between the hues of blue on the England and India shirts (though England wear navy trousers). Livingstone slips through an over in less than two minutes. Maybe this is the answer – get through them so quickly you can defeat India by stealth.
27th over India 200-2 (Rohit 115, Shreyas 14) Apart from a full toss flambeed through backward point by Rohit, a fairly quiet over from Mark Wood.
Hello, Tom Hopkins. ”I respectfully, but I think philosophically, disagree with Brian Withington. To my mind, the great achievement of umpire’s call is that it preserves the sense that not everything is binary, there’s a middle ground where sometimes you get a bit lucky and sometimes you get the rough end of the stick and both of those things are ok. That’s how sport (and maybe life) is supposed to be. Go for the chimera of 100% precision and you’re inviting the dumpster fire that is VAR (maybe even more so, as that’s not even trying to predict what might have happened, only failing to provide total clarity on what did happen).
”And, yes, the current umpire’s call is simplistic but it’s visual and makes some intuitive sense, if a number just pops up “Joel, I’m being told there’s an 89% probability you were wrong, the benchmark is 90%, you can stick with your on field position” is anyone going to buy that (entertainment value of someone trying to explain that to Botham notwithstanding)?”
A hundred for Rohit Sharma!
26th over India 194-2 (Rohit 110, Shreyas 13) No more messing – Rohit reaches his 32nd ODI hundred (off 77 balls) with a six – dancing down the pitch and pancaking Rashid over long off. Smokes is puffed into the air, he gets a hug from Shreyas and a roar from the crowd. Only Kohli and Tendulkar lie ahead. A swarthy reverse-sweep brings four more, “Rohit, Rohit” shout the crowd. And another, helped down leg side, to finish the over. What a fantastically bombastic innings this has been.
25th over India 179-2 (Rohit 96, Shreyas 11) Rohit looks left, looks right. Those five runs are beginning to itch him. He tries to flick Wood for four on the legside but misses. Wood throws his hands up. In the end is content with a singel – Wood’s over going for just three runs. England have managed to claw back a little control here. At the half way point, India need another 126 to win.
24th over India 176-2 (Rohit 95, Shreyas 10) The crowd are hungry. Three singles. England bring the field up. A wide from Rashid. Then another wide of off stump but not given – to Rohit’s smiling bemusement. Rashid smiles and pulls on his cap.
23rd over India 172-2 (Rohit 94, Shreyas 8) Wood is back. Three dots. Rohit looks quite wrung out. A little air has slipped out from the tautly tied balloon. Another dot, then Rohit clears the front leg and frying-pans Wood into the stands.
22nd over India 165-2 (Rohit 87, Shreyas 6) KP notes that England’s fielders are deliberately throwing the ball at Rohit’s end as India pick up the singles – four from Rashid’s over – plus a sweep for four from Shreyas.
21st over India 158-2 (Rohit 82, Shreyas 6) Shreyas helps himself to four off Overton to fire up the rockets.
20th over India 151-2 (Rohit 81, Shryas 1) England bite back. The crowd are hushed with disappointment as Virat shuffles back to the bunker, just a couple of singles off the over.
Hello there Brian Withington: “A thought initially prompted by an unsuccessful Nathan Lyon review against Sri Lanka the other day and reinforced by Woods review of Rohit earlier – the umpire’s call margin is too arbitrary and inflexible, being too generous in some situations and too parsimonious in others. For example that Woods delivery would have required after burners to clamber over the stumps rather than pleasingly splash the bails boundarywards.
“I think the answer is simple without dispensing entirely with the concept – just use the tracking algorithm to calculate probability of the umpire being in error (I’m sure it already can). And then overturn whenever tracking says the umpire is wrong with say [99]% confidence (precise number set after case study review).
“Projections of trajectory where the ball has travelled a decent distance before hitting the pad (which is also close to the wicket) are inherently more reliable than others. And cricket balls that have reached the apex of their bounce before striking the pad don’t climb any higher …”
I’ll throw that one to the floor…
WICKET! Kohli st Salt b Rashid (India 150-2)
Not out on the field but Salt is convinced… and he’s right! Kohli pushes forward and gets a kiss of an edge to a ball that Rashid gave some air. Dismay in the crowd, disbelief from Kohli, but drinks works its magic again.
19th over India 146-1 (Rohit 78, Kohli 4) I didn’t have Jamie Overton down as the miserly breakthrough man – but after a wicket in his first over, his second goes for just three runs. Rohit does up his shoelaces and they take DRINKS.
“Hi Tanya, lovely way to spend Sunday. Unless you’re an England bowler perhaps. Maybe I’m oversimplifying things but would it be better if we’re not bowling leg side and allowing Rohit and Shubman to just help it to the boundary? This side still feels pretty unbalanced, especially in the spin department. I can’t understand why we only have Rashid as a front line spinner? It seems pretty misguided. Pace, pace and more pace doesn’t work everywhere. Not without some variation.”
Hello, Guy Hornsby! I guess they’re hoping for Root and Livingstone’s variations to do some work – does feels a bit like Rohit could eat them for breakfast though.
18th over India 146-1 (Rohit 78, Kohli 4) The old firm are back in charge – though I’m not quite as excited by Kohli’s arrival at the wicket as I once was: so strike me down (and watch him get a hundred). The crowd are very enthusiastic though. Rohit pulls another short ball from Atkinson for four, then Kohli drives him with perfect high elbow, straight legs and exquisite positioning straight down the ground for another.
“Some fascinating insights to noise at cricket grounds there.” writes Dean Kinsella. “I have travelled in India and have experienced both beautiful music and the treble only speaker systems at festivals. But my point wasn’t only about noise in India only. Its one of the main reasons I would never consider attending an episode of the hundred or a T20 in England or anywhere else. I am a musician myself and love live concerts even loud ones (though more often when I was younger and less fuddy duddy). But I just don’t see the value of four bars of a four minute tune. Its noise pollution.”
17th over India 137-1 (Rohit 73, Kohli 0) Overton’s first ball of the innings goes for four. The second is a wide. The fourth is another four – pulled with vicious hands by Gill who is then bowled – quite out of the order of things. Another wide follows but reward at last for England.
WICKET! Gill b Overton 60 (India 136-1)
At last! “Come on” shouts Overton with clenched fist. Gill done by an outstanding yorker which nips out his off stump.
16th over India 127-0 (Rohit 73, Gill 52) Atkinson tries to bounce Rohit and is swatted to the rope. As he is from his last ball, a half-arsed bouncer which Rohit swings over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes, for six.
“Hello Tanya,” Andrew Benton, hello!
“You swim reluctantly, and now England sink, reluctantly. Come on our bowlers, get to it, this game is slip-sliding away.
“Beach Volleyball at the Beijing Olympics was my first exposure to sport as entertainment – there were sometimes only a few seconds of silence at a time, a point not taking long to play, though by the end even the commentator/DJ was flagging a bit. Was a very fun day.”
Fifty for Shubman Gill
15th over India 114-0 (Rohit 62, Gill 50) And so it continues, Rashid again sent over the rope. This time Gill, two fours, inside-out over extra, lofted and not. He reaches his fifty with a single, off 45 balls. Not a bad foil for Rohit. England in need of wickets, quickly.
14th over India 105-0 (Rohit 62, Gill 36) Gill brings up the hundred partnership (101 balls), pulling Wood forward of square with contracted arms between the waiting Duckett and Brook, who can only turn to watch the ball gallop to the boundary. And then Rohit dances with the lightness of a skinny man, down the track, flaying himWood over extra cover for four more.
