Indian captain Rohit Sharma said he wanted to bat as deep as possible after leading his team to a four-wicket win against England in the second ODI at the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on Sunday. With this win, India also took an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series.
England posted a decent score of 304 runs on the board after Jos Buttler decided to bat first. Ben Duckett and Joe Root scored half-centuries for the visitors but the rest of the batters could not convert their starts.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, who has been under the pump, was able to get back into form and scored a fine knock of 119 runs off just 90 balls. The Indian captain scored 12 fours and seven sixes in his blistering knock as he batted at the top of his game after a long time.
Rohit reached his 32nd ODI century off just 76 balls after he stepped down to hit Adil Rashid for a maximum.
Rohit Sharma said after he was awarded Player of the Match, “It was good, really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. Important game, series on the line. I broke it into pieces how I wanted to bat. It’s a format that is longer than T20 cricket and a lot shorter than Tests. Still, you need to assess and bat according to the situation. I wanted to stay focused and bat as deep as possible. Looking at the pitch when you play on black soil, the pitch tends to skid on a bit so it’s important that you show the full face of the bat.”
Rohit added that England bowlers were trying to bowl into the body and thus he made his plans accordingly and wanted to find the gaps. The Indian skipper also praised his opening partner Shubman Gill, who scored 60 runs and added 136 runs with Rohit.
Rohit concluded, “Then they were trying to bowl into the body and not give room so I prepared my plan as well. I accessed the gaps and obviously, I got good support from Gill and then Shreyas. We enjoy batting with each other, Gill is a very very classy player. I have seen him from close quarters and he doesn’t get overawed by the situation. The numbers are there as well if I’m not wrong.”
The final and third ODI between India and England will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
