‘’I said they needed a spark. I said they needed something brilliant in the field. Jadeja might just have provided that,’’ Nasser Hussain enthused on air during the 2019 World Cup clash between India and England at Edgbaston. Moving like a gazelle, Ravindra Jadeja had thrown himself across the ground at long-on to gobble up a flat and hard hit from Jason Roy inches off the turf, putting the kibosh on a 160-run opening stand that had brought the men in blue down to their knees. That standalone event was key to limiting the hosts to 337 in 50 overs whereas a total of 400 looked rather attainable with the way Jonny Bairstow and Roy were cruising at the outset.
Some inspired groundwork seemed to be the last resort for an Indian comeback in the series opener in Nagpur as well after the turbocharged kick-off to the game. Firm adherents of the stand-and-deliver philosophy, Phil Salt and Ben Duckett added 75 runs off 53 balls, consigning Harshit Rana to a 26-run over in the process as they earmarked the debutant for attack. On a couple of occasions the right-hander walked across his stumps to heave balls pitching outside the off-stump through the leg-side even as Rana’s short length in general in the first spell sat up nicely for the batters on a red-soil track with amazing bounce and carry.
Even the introduction of spin, India’s time-tested ploy in the face of an assault, couldn’t cut ice with Axar Patel going for 15 in an over. Hardik Pandya’s misjudgement of a catching opportunity at mid-on hurt India a little more with each passing boundary. It is in such dire moments, when dots are as rare as a four-leaf clover and the opposition is skiskating into the ascendancy, that staying sharp as a fielding unit helps. For, a breakthrough conjured up by a fine piece of athleticism not only does the obvious of nudging you back in the contest but the spectacular nature of the feat also provides a major psychological boost to the team as a whole.
Shreyas Iyer’s run-out of Salt, who was sold down the river by his indolent partner in pursuit of a third run, and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s backpedalling grab lifted India’s collective shoulders. Nosediving from 75/0 to 77/3 in a matter of seven balls, England went 45 balls without a boundary in the middle phase, an acute period of stagnation for an outfit that averaged nearly 60 in overs 11-40 while scoring at a tick over six runs per over in the 2019 World Cup at home.
The conditions and personnel are different, of course, but England pride themselves on keeping the momentum intact despite body blows. ‘’That is not how we want to play. We want to put the opposition under pressure,’’ Jos Buttler admitted. Hardik Pandya conceded only 37 runs in his seven overs to back up an inexperienced Rana and Mohammed Shami, who donned the ODI jersey after 444 days. Much to England’s chagrin, their third seamer Brydon Carse was not able to offer similar control, ending up with an economy of 10.4 in five overs as the hosts managed to recover from the double whammy on the score of 19. While India developed two 90+ partnerships to successfully chase 249 with almost a dozen overs to spare, England lost Buttler and Jacob Bethell immediately after their respective fifties to underachieve in the final analysis.
As things stand, England have now lost seven of the eight ODIs wherein they batted first post the 2023 World Cup but there was merit in the decision made at the toss. Low on confidence owing to a 4-1 rout in the T20I series, England didn’t want to expose themselves to the swelter of the asking rate in the second innings on a pitch that was bound to deteriorate. The red soil has less clay content and hence offers less elasticity and water absorption capacity which makes it dry relatively sooner than black soil, leading to greater wear and tear as the match progresses. It was evident from the degree of turn Adil Rashid found to send half-centurion Axar packing, and emphasized the value of keeping England to a par score, a compression that wouldn’t have been possible if not for the exemplary fielding of the hosts throughout. ‘’Another 40-50 runs could have been handy with the way the wicket played towards the end,’’ Buttler highlighted.
Having swallowed his latest batting failure that tipped his average to 10.37 in 16 innings across formats in the 2024-25 season, winning captain Rohit Sharma shed light on the tremendous scope for bouncebackability in 50-over cricket after India’s recent indulgence with the shortest format where the dynamism makes it challenging to pull off a Granby Roll. ‘’Didn’t start off well with their openers putting pressure on us, but the way we came back was superb. This is a slightly longer format where you have time to come back. When things start to go away from you, it doesn’t mean you are out. Credit to the bowlers, everyone chipped in. It was important for us to keep us going, we took wickets at crucial time, liked the energy on the field.’’
Sandwiched between the thrill-a-minute T20s and the WTC-uplifted Tests, the ODIs are believed to be struggling to capture the public imagination for some time now. As the ICC grapples with many an administrative puzzler – reviving spectator interest, meeting the revenue demands of the broadcasters and organisers, increasing the watchability factor while keeping the playing field level and juggling player workloads in a cricketing calendar bursting at its seams – this kind of contests which ebb and flow make a good advertisement for a format facing an existential crisis.
50-over cricket serves as an important bridge between the extremities of Test and T20 cricket, allowing a scrumptious bandwidth for twists and turns layered by myriad fascinating subplots. For instance, India retaliating upon fumbling the early exchanges in each innings, Jadeja’s straight lines fetching 3/18, Iyer counterpunching like a pro, Axar’s promotion in order to maintain the left-right combination and capitalize on the inward turn of Rashid and Bethell, or Jofra Archer’s cameo threatening India’s death-overs execution in the absence of specialist Arshdeep Singh.
