Tall left-arm quick Reece Topley claimed his career-best figures in ODI cricket as England defeated India by 100 runs in the second ODI at Lord’s on Thursday to level the three-match series at 1-1.
After the Indian bowlers, led by Yuzvendra Chahal (4-47) bowled out England for 246, Topley made use of the favourable conditions and varied his pace to pick 6-24 in 9.5 overs, the best figures by any England bowler in ODI history as India crashed to 146 all out in 38.5 overs, taking the series to a winner-takes-it-all decider at Manchester on Sunday.
With England finding some nip off the pitch, they were able to keep Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in check with maidens in the first two overs. To’ley’s show began by taking out Sharma for a ten-ball duck, getting one to come and hit the back pad.
Virat Kohli, back after a groin niggle kept him out of the first ODI, looked gorgeous while playing a straight drive, on drive and cover drive against Topley. But the tall left-arm quick came back strongly to take out a scratchy Dhawan, getting him to flick off his gloves and carried behind to Buttler.
India continued to wither under pressure as Rishabh Pant smacked a Brydon Carse full toss straight to mid-on. In the next over, left-arm quick David Willey claimed the big scalp of Kohli as he tried to chase a wide ball away from the body and gave an easy catch to Buttler.
From 31-4, Suryakumar Yadav tried to get India’s chase on track through a 42-run partnership with Hardik Pandya. But Topley, coming back for his second spell, made an immediate impact, cramping a fluent Yadav for room and chopped onto his stumps.
Pandya then had a brief 28-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, which was snapped by Moeen Ali bowling a wide ball away fro’ the former’s hitting arc. By then, Pandya was into the sweep and holed out to square leg. Mohammed Shami played the long handle to perfection, hitting two fours and a majestic lofted six down the ground.
But Topley brought back for his third spell of the day, got Shami to miscue a fuller slower ball in the air, and was caught by a charging mid-on. Liam Livingstone immediately struck with his part-time spin as Jadeja was clean-bowled while going for a flick. Topley claimed his five-fer by castling Chahal and two balls later, got Prasidh Krishna to edge behind to Buttler to seal a resounding win for England after a ten-wicket thrashing in the first ODI.
Earlier, Chahal scalped four big wickets in the middle overs to lead another brilliant bowling show for India. It was a da’ on which India’s bowlers struck at regular intervals, pushing England on the backfoot to deliver a strong performance with the ball.
Electing to bowl first, Shami got the ball to move both ways and beat the outer edges of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow consistently. After getting a life at 23, Roy flicked in the air and gave an easy catch to deep backward square leg off Pandya. Bairstow opened up with boundaries through the inside-out loft off Chahal and pulling Krishna twice through the leg-side.
But Chahal broke the promising second-wicket stand as Bairstow got down for the slog-sweep, but missed the ball and was castled. Three overs later, Chahal had another huge scalp when Joe Root was trapped lbw on an attempted sweep, with the batter burning a review for England.
England fell into more trouble when Shami got one to come in and clean-bowled Buttler. Stokes took the attack to Chahal with four consecutive reverse sweeps, two of them fetching him boundaries through cover-point and backward point. But the leg-spinner had the last laugh as Stokes went for a reverse-sweep again, but couldn’t connect with it as the ball turned away to hit his back-pad.
The left-handed batter went for a review but replays showed ball hitting top of the middle-stump, which meant England exhausted their reviews even before reaching the halfway stage of the innings. Livingstone and Ali tried to steer England’s ship with a 46-run stand off 45 balls for the sixth wicket, keeping the scoreboard ticking and hitting boundaries in between.
Livingstone smacked Pandya for a pulled six over backward square leg and took four more with another pull through mid-wicket. But Pandya had the last laugh as Livingstone pulled straight to deep square leg. Ali then joined forces with Willey for England’s repair job, starting off with strike rotation before the duo took a six each over deep backward square-leg and fine-leg off Krishna’s seventh over.
Despite Chahal, Shami and Bumrah coming on, Ali and Willey, dropped by Krishna off Pandya on 1, found boundaries with ease. The 62-run stand was brought to an end by Chahal, who bowled slow and wide to Ali and had the left-hander caught on a slog-sweep to deep mid-wicket.
Willey pulled Bumrah for a six over the deep backward square leg before holing out to a juggling long-on off a slower ball. Krishna and Bumrah took out the last two wickets to keep England four runs below 250, enough to get a series-levelling win.