India vs England: Old guns Yuvraj, MS Dhoni fire

Cuttack: India held their nerve to overcome a brave England by 15 runs in the second ODI to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. England captain Eoin Morgan played a captain’s innings 102 (81b, 6x4, 5x6) under immense pressure to take his team within touching distance, but his run-out in the penultimate over tilted scales in the home team's favour.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned back the clock with sublime centuries as India recovered handsomely to smash 381/6 on Thursday.

With India in trouble at 25 for three, Yuvraj (150 off 127 balls) and Dhoni (134 off 122) joined hands to forge a 256-run partnership to put their team in a position of strength from a precarious one.

The two veterans used their years of experience to turn the tide for India after England opted to field at a packed Barabati Stadium.

Yuvraj was on fire from ball one and hammered 21 fours and three sixes in his career-best knock in ODIs. The southpaw, brought back into the national team, could not have silenced his detractors in a better way as got to his 14th ODI hundred, which was his first since the 2011 World Cup.

It was a typical innings from Dhoni, who took his time initially before cutting loose to tear the opposition bowlers apart.

Dhoni too crossed the three figure mark after a while with his last hundred coming way back in 2013 when he struck an unbeaten 139 against Australia at Mohali.

He ended up hammering 10 fours and half a dozen sixes, scoring his 10th ODI hundred in the process and first since handing over captaincy to Virat Kohli. It was raining sixes and fours especially in the last 10 overs with India lapping up 120 runs.

England will have to bat out of their skins to overcome the imposing target. India lead the three-match series 1-0. The total is India’s second highest against England behind their 387/5 in Rajkot in 2008. It was also a record score at the venue, bettering 363/5 against Sri Lanka in 2014 as the packed 43,000-capacity crowd were made to forget the disappointment of seeing India all out for 79 in the T20 International on October 5.

Dhoni and Yuvraj added 256 off 230 balls, the second highest for the fourth wicket behind Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja’s 275 against Zimbabwe, incidentally at the same venue.

Scoreboard
India: K.L. Rahul c Stokes b Woakes 5, S. Dhawan b Woakes 11, V. Kohli c Stokes b Woakes 8, Yuvraj Singh c Buttler b Woakes 150, M.S. Dhoni c Willey b Plunkett 134, K. Jadhav c Ball b Plunkett 22, H. Pandya (not out) 19, R. Jadeja (not out) 16. Extras: (b4, lb2, w9, nb1) 16. Total (for 6 wkts, in 50 overs) 381.
FoW: 1-14, 2-22, 3-25, 4-281, 5-323, 6-358.
Bowling: Woakes 10-3-60-4, Willey 5-0-32-0 (1w), Ball 10-0-80-0 (2w), Plunkett 10-1-91-2 (1nb, 4w), Stokes 9-0-79-0 (1w), Ali 6-0-33-0 (1w).

England: J.J. Roy b Jadeja 82, A. Hales c Dhoni b Bumrah 14, J. Root c Kohli b Ashwin 54, E. Morgan (run out) 102, B. Stokes b Ashwin 1, J. Buttler st Dhoni b Ashwin 10, M. Ali b Kumar 55, C. Woakes b Bumrah 5, L. Plunkett (not out) 26, D. Willey (not out) 5. Extras: (lb 7, w 4, nb 1) 12. Total: (for 8 wkts, in 50 overs) 366.
FoW: 1-28, 2-128, 3-170, 4-173, 5-206, 6-299, 7-304, 8-354.
Bowling: Kumar 10-1-63-1, Bumrah 9-0-81-2 (1nb, 1w), Jadeja 10-0-45-1, Pandya 6-0-60-0, Ashwin 10-0-65-3 (2w), Jadhav 5-0-45-0 (1w).