(Cricinfo) Rohit Sharma silenced the doubters and showed his readiness to lead India into the Champions Trophy, as he powered through to his 32nd ODI century to set his side up for an unassailable 2-0 series lead in the second ODI against England at Cuttack.
With India set a stiff but far from daunting 305 to win, after a piecemeal England performance featuring seven double-figure scores but nothing more imposing than Joe Root’s 69 from 72 balls, Rohit demonstrated the blend of power and endurance that the black-soil conditions required, as he broke the back of the chase with 119 from 90 balls, including 12 fours and seven sixes.
He reached his landmark from 76 balls with the last of those sixes, a glorious lofted drive over wide long-off off Adil Rashid, and had he not scuffed a Liam Livingstone full-toss to midwicket with 85 runs still needed, the margin of victory could have been crushing. Instead, India injected a few late jitters into their chase, losing three wickets in five overs after Shreyas Iyer was needlessly run out for 44, and it required Axar Patel’s calm 41 not out from 43 balls to guard against embarrassment.
Realistically though, England had been chasing shadows long before Ravindra Jadeja, their chief tormenter with the ball, had driven the winning boundary with 33 balls to spare. Those shadows had been literal ones at one stage, when a floodlight failure in the seventh over caused a tedious 40-minute delay.
Despite his well-documented struggles in Australia this winter, and notwithstanding his unconvincing 2 from seven balls in Nagpur on Thursday, Rohit has played too few ODIs of late to be considered out of form in the format. This was only his fifth 50-over innings since the World Cup final in November 2023, where his haul of 597 runs at 54.27 had been instrumental in his team’s march to the final. Since then, he had added two more fifties in three innings in Sri Lanka in August. Even with his 38th birthday looming in April, and with 11,000 career ODI runs beckoning in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, he’s looking good for a few more yet.
As in Nagpur, Rohit’s first seven balls were the least convincing of his innings, although this time they weren’t also his last seven. His first boundary was a streaky four through deep third off Gus Atkinson, but when he found his range one ball later, it was as if a switch had been flicked in his game-brain. Out came a sublime pick-up off the pads which flew over deep midwicket for six – arguably the best shot he had played all winter – and suddenly his timing was attuned to the surface. Saqib Mahmood, who had troubled him in a tight first over, was blazed for two more sixes in overs three and five, over extra cover and long-off, and the chase was on.
Rohit had eased along to 29 off 18 when the floodlight failure kicked in, and the frustration could have been all the more acute when Mark Wood entered the attack after the resumption and struck him on the knee-roll with his third ball. However, England’s review was deemed by ball-tracking to have only been clipping leg, and Rohit’s response was to slam his front foot to the pitch of his next ball, and lift Wood clean over long-off for his fourth six in eight overs – as many as England managed in their entire innings.
Rashid, so often England’s trump card, was unable to stem the tide. Rohit clubbed him for two more fours in his first over, to march through to a 30-ball fifty, before Shubman Gill – hitherto the silent partner – showed he wasn’t about to waste his solid start with a wondrous slog-sweep for his solitary six.
Another pull for four from Gill brought up the hundred partnership in the 14th over, and one over later, he had his own fifty – from 45 balls – and the 21st time in 49 ODI innings that he had got there, at an average that briefly nudged above 60. England’s lack of variety was exposed when Atkinson – still smarting from his brutal treatment in the opening T20I – returned to the attack to be hoisted for two more pulled boundaries by Rohit, including a rank half-tracker that was dumped behind square for his fifth six. The breakthrough, when it arrived, came somewhat out of the blue. Jamie Overton had been pumped for two fours in four balls by Gill when he hit back with a superb yorker that plucked out the off stump at 141kph. The momentary silence around Cuttack, however, was almost immediately replaced by a roar of acclaim, as Virat Kohli – back in the team after his knee niggle in Nagpur – walked out with the stage set at 136 for 1.
It would not prove to be a lengthy stay. One smartly driven four off Atkinson got the crowd purring, but Kohli had faced just eight deliveries when Rashid turned a legbreak past another forceful drive, and Phil Salt’s excellent take was rewarded when England’s review showed a feathered edge. Having been recalled to the XI in place of India’s rising star, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kohli’s failure was as acute as Rohit’s success, although he might argue – rather like his captain – that it wasn’t that many ODIs ago that he was Player of the Tournament for his 765 runs at the 2023 World Cup.
As for England, their problems are rather more significant. Not unlike their low-wattage batting
