Bairstow, Stokes power England to big win

PUNE: Centurion Jonny Bairstow (124 off 112 balls, 11x4s, 7x6s) and Ben Stokes (99 off 52 balls, 10x6s, 4x4s) added 175 runs for the second wicket to help England chase a mammoth 337-run target set by India and win the second One-day International by six wickets and with 39 balls to spare here on Friday.

With this win, England levelled the three-match series 1-1 after India had won the first ODI by 66 runs. Sunday's final game will be the series decider at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

England got off to a flying start with Jason Roy (55 off 52 balls) adding 110 with Bairstow for the first wicket in 99 balls. After Roy was dismissed, Bairstow and Stokes continued the onslaught. By the time they were removed, the visitors needed just around four an over which was easy for the latter batsmen.

After a string of 40s, Roy got to his first fifty in white ball matches on this tour. He had made 49, 46, 9, 40 and 0 in the T20I series that preceded the ODIs and followed it up with a 46 in the first ODI. On Friday though, he went on to get a half-century before he was run out following a mix-up.

This was the third successive century partnership between Roy and Bairstow in ODIs against India after 160 off 133 balls in the World Cup in 2019 and 135 off 86 balls in the first one-dayer here on Tuesday.

If India thought that breaking the opening partnership with Roy's dismissal would help them run through the middle-order like in the first ODI, they were mistaken.

If anything, Stokes and Bairstow upped the gear. They were particularly harsh on spinners left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya and Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav as they hammered boundaries at will and made light of the imposing target.

The 100-run partnership between Stokes and Bairstow took just 87 balls and the next 70-odd came in just 27 balls. England batsmen got 34 runs in three overs -- between 22 to 24 -- but opened their arms further after the 30th over. IANS

SCOREBOARD

INDIA:

Rohit Sharma c Rashid b Curran 25

Shikhar Dhawan c Stokes b Topley 4

*Virat Kohli c Buttler b Rashid 66

KL Rahul c Topley b Curran 108

Rishabh Pant c Roy b Curran 77

Hardik Pandya c Roy b Topley 35

Krunal Pandya not out 12

Shardul Thakur not out 0

Extras: 9; Total: 336-6 (50)

FOW: Dhawan (9-1, 3.5), Rohit (37-2, 8.4), Kohli (158-3, 32), Rahul (270-4, 44.5), Pant (308-5, 46.5), Pandya (334-6, 49.5)

Bowling:

Sam Curran 7 0 47 1

Reece Topley 8 0 50 2

Tom Curran 10 0 83 2

Ben Stokes 5 0 42 0

Moeen Ali 10 0 47 0

Adil Rashid 10 0 65 1

ENGLAND:

Jason Roy run out (Pant) 55

Jonny Bairstow c Kohli b Krishna 124

Ben Stokes c Pant b Bhuvneshwar 99

Dawid Malan not out 16

*Jos Buttler b Krishna 0

Liam Livingstone not out 27

Extras: 15;Total: 337-4 (43.3)

FOW:Roy (110-1, 16.3), Stokes (285-2, 35.2), Bairstow (287-3, 36.1), Buttler (287-4, 36.4)

Bowling:

B Kumar 10 0 63 1

Prasidh Krishna 10 0 58 2

Shardul Thakur 7.3 0 58 0

Kuldeep Yadav 10 0 83 0

Krunal Pandya 6 0 72 0

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