Stokes and Bairstow onslaught levels the series at 1-1

England made a mockery of India’s total of 336 as they managed to chase down the target within 43.3 overs to win the 2nd ODI by 6 wickets in Pune. Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow put on a power-hitting clinic as they took the Indian spinners in particular to the cleaners in the run chase. After missing out on a 100 in the last game, Bairstow didn’t let this opportunity go to waste as he scored a brilliant 124 of 112 balls to win the man of the match. The Yorkshireman was well supported by Ben Stokes who scored a ballistic 99 of only 52 balls. Stokes went into a different zone after passing his 50 as he scored his last 49 runs off only 12 deliveries. This spectacular run chase levels the series at 1-1 and perfectly sets up the series decider in the 3rd ODI on Sunday.

After losing the toss, the Indian team were once again put in to bat and were rocked early on after losing both their openers within the powerplay. Reece Topley replaced Mark Wood in the XI and extracted great swing and bounce from the surface during the opening exchanges. After the early breakthroughs, India were able to recalibrate through Virat Kohli and KL Rahul who put together a crucial 100 run partnership.

Just like in the 1st game, Kohli was once again dismissed shortly after reaching his half-century. However, his dismissal brought Rishabh Pant to the crease who completely changed the dynamics of India’s innings. Pant launched a superb counter-attack along with KL Rahul to help take India to a competitive total. Rahul scored a fine century and returned to form after an indifferent T20 series while Pant scored a blistering 77 of 40 deliveries to take India to a total of 336.

Unfortunately for the hosts, that total looked like it was 15-20 runs under par as England made light work of this monster chase thanks to two outstanding knocks from Stokes and Bairstow. India and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled brilliantly with the new ball but crucially failed to make any breakthroughs and Roy and Bairstow were once again able to put on a century stand, their 13th in 43 innings. Roy was eventually run-out after a mix-up between the pair but Bairstow continued the onslaught and reached his 10th ODI century. 

England were on par with the run-rate at the halfway stage of the innings but the game completely changed after Stokes carted the Indian spinners for 48 runs in the space of 2 overs to seal the game for England. Stokes and Bairstow put on a staggering partnership of 175 runs before the left-hander was cruelly dismissed on 99. India managed to pick up 3 wickets in the space of seven deliveries but all that did was delay the inevitable as Liam Livingstone and Dawid Malan cruised home to give the visitors the victory.