In a crushing nine-wicket victory over England in the fourth one-dayer, Team India did not put a foot wrong. The bowlers were on song and the openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane, in particular, tore the English attack apart.
The victory not only made Mahendra Singh Dhoni India’s most successful ODI captain but also handed men in blue a much needed victory in the ODI series. India clinched the five-match series 3-0, with still one game to go, after the first match was washed out.
Skipper Dhoni had all reasons to smile, following his team’s one-sided victory in the fourth match, and the attacking right-hander termed it a big positive, after being humiliated in the Test series few weeks back by the same English team.
“The good thing is, we have kept improving from the first ODI on,” Dhoni said. “That’s definitely a big positive. It was a good toss to win today. The fast bowlers bowled really well initially and gave us those early breakthroughs, because of which we were able to put pressure on their middle order.”
“Overall, I’m very happy,” he added. “Jinks [Rahane] also got a century. We got an opening partnership. So a complete game for us.”
Everything went India’s way, Dhoni invited England to bat and the pacers justified his decision by providing early jolts. Openers Alex Hales and Alastair Cook were the first to go and England never recovered after that.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohammed Shami knotted the English team; leave alone scoring freely, the hosts couldn’t rotate the strike properly. Shami was the pick of the bowlers and took three wickets, while Bhuvneshwar took two.
The Indian spinners crushed any chance of England’s revival, as Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, which were looking to rescue their team, fell on quick successions. Moeen Ali, however, carried his Test form to the ODIs and struck a fine half-century.
Ali made the Indian bowling looked ordinary and scored a 51-ball 65 to help his team cross the 200-run mark. The southpaw, however, couldn’t finish the innings and once he fell, the Indians took no time in bundling the hosts.
“We were not tested because our fast bowlers bowled well initially in the game,” Dhoni pointed out. “Where they didn’t bowl well, the spinners took the responsibility. So on and off it was good. Batting, we have kept improving from the first game, which I feel is important.
“We will only see how much we will be tested. Testing is good, but you don’t always want to be tested. You want to win games easily too, you don’t always want to hang in until the 49th-50th over.”
There was nothing on the board to defend for James Anderson and company. They looked clueless in front of Dhawan and Rahane, who scored his second century on the English soil, and lost the series and match.
“With the World Cup coming up, it is very important we start doing well outside the subcontinent,” Dhoni insisted. “We don’t think about what happened in the Test series, and what will happen in the future series.”
