India win series with Yuvraj and Dhoni tons

Remember the time chasing was hard in ODIs? A second match of this series assumed heart-stopping proportions as a flat track, a fast outfield, short boundaries and batsmen with self-belief the size of a small planet came together. India put up 381, fuelled by a career-best 150 from Yuvraj Singh and a 10th hundred from MS Dhoni. But they only just came away the victors of the match, and the series, as Eoin Morgan responded with one of the great innings by a batsman in England colours.

Beyond the runs Morgan made [102 off 81], beyond his ball-striking and the weird areas he exploited with those whiplash wrists – his composure under pressure was unreal. There were over 40, 000 people in Cuttack bellowing against him. The Indian spinners had done well despite the dew to complicate matters. The required run-rate had nudged over 10 at the end of the 36th over but, since England had lost half their side by then, Morgan had to wait. He was the set batsman – 46 off 48 balls – and his team needed him to last till the end. To that effect, he would defend his way through an R Ashwin over because after that it would be him against the Indian quicks. Morgan was gambling, and it was even paying off for a while.

He made one of the headline contributions in a remarkable match. There were 747 runs, 19 sixes and 81 fours and its final swing took place in its penultimate over when Jasprit Bumrah held his nerve to run Morgan out for 102 while he was backing up to get back on strike.

Summarized scores: India 381 for 6 (Yuvraj 150, Dhoni 134, Woakes 4-60) beat England 366 for 8 (Morgan 102, Roy 82, Moeen 55, Root 54, and Ashwin 3-65) by 15 runs

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