Reece Topley
Reece Topley shines as England rout India by 100 runs to level series 1-1
London/UNI: Reece Topley starred as England hammered India by 100 runs to level the series 1-1 in the three-match series at Lord's here Thursday.
Topley picked up six wickets for 24 runs in 9.5 overs.
Chasing 247, India could score just 146 runs in 38.5 overs as their insipid batting was on display.
India had a very poor start as Topley sent back Rohit Sharma for a duck in his second over after he had faced 10 balls.
Rohit was trapped plumb on a swinging delivery off Topley, who then removed the struggling Shikhar Dhawan for 9 runs after he offered a catch down the leg side, thus giving the English quickie his second wicket.
Rishabh Pant was next to walk back to the pavilion after he chipped a low full toss off Brydon Carse to mid-on.
Virat Kohli was dismissed by David Willey for 16 after he smashed three beautiful boundaries as India slid to 31 for 4.
Suryakumar Yadav carried on with his Trent Bridge form with some exquisite shots before Topley returned to scalp his wicket for 27 and break the sedate 42-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Moeen Ali then sent back Hardik Pandya packing, leaving India with all rounder Ravindra Jadeja along the tail-enders.
Earlier, India managed to restrict England to 246 in 49 overs in yet another spectacular bowling display on a deck that dried up pretty soon.
Yuzuvendra Chahal was the star bowler as he bagged 4 wickets after frittering away 47 runs.
Resultantly, England had to endure a mini-collapse as they tumbled from 72/1 to 102/5, though they started off magnificently.
Apart from Chahal, Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah scalped 2 wickets each, while Mohammad Shami and Prasidh Krishna picked up one each.
Chahal delivered some spunky middle-overs and almost struck regularly and the most prominent was Jonny Bairstow's wicket who was looking ominous for a big score. His loss put India's quest on track and if not for Moeen-Willey partnership, the score could have been paltry.
For England, top-scorer Moeen Ali belted 47 runs off 64 balls with 2 fours and as many sixes.
Willey cracked a flamboyant 41 runs off 49 balls with two boundaries and as many sixes, while Jonny Bairstow scored 38-off-38.
Liam Livingstone also scored 33 runs at a strike rate of 100.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
