Biswajit Jha/Zeenews.com
New Delhi: The Delhi duo of Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir played two excellent but contrasting knocks to guide India to a comfortable 8-wicket victory in the 2nd ODI to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match ODI series between India and England.
Kohli slammed an attractive hundred and remained not out on 112 while Gambhir remained unbeaten on 84.
The victory would definitely gave a sense of restoring the lost pride to the Indian fans who have been eagerly waiting to see their home team win the series and take revenge of the humiliation their team suffered at the hands of England just a month back.
Like the first ODI, Team India came up with a clinical performance. They first wrapped up the England innings for 237 and then chased down the total with clinical precision with 13.2 overs to spare.
It was the young Kohli again who stole the show. His innings was a treat to watch. It was a mixture of passion and aggression.
He never missed a scoring opportunity during his innings. Whenever the England bowlers bowled short at him, he was quick to latch on to it, scoring boundaries both of his off and leg-sides.
His seventh ODI century came off just 89 balls with 14 hits to the boundaries.
His 98-ball innings consisted of 16 fours.
Gambhir, on the other hand, played second fiddle to his young mate. He remained cool and calculative throughout the entire innings and gave Kohli a freedom to bat freely.
His calculated knock came from 90 balls with 10 fours.
Every England bowler save Tim Bresnan, who was the pick of the lot with 2/41, was punished by the two Delhi batsmen throughout the entire match.
Apart from Bresnan, no bowler looked like getting a wicket.
Earlier, despite losing two openers early, Kohli and Gambhir steadied the Indian innings as they took the team past 100-runmark before the 20 over.
Kohli made a fluent fifty off just 45 balls with the help of six boundaries. Immediately after Kohli’s fifty, Gambhir also touched half-century mark off 62 balls.
Ajinkya Rahane missed another opportunity of putting up a good score as he threw his wicket away for 14 which had a four and a four in it.
He hooked Tim Bresnan for a six in the previous ball but was holed out in the fine-leg by Dernbach off when the bowler decided to throw another one at him in the very next ball.
Chasing 238 for a win, India lost opener Parthiv Patel in the 5th over when the diminutive left-hander was sent to the pavilion for a 17-ball 12.
Indian pacers came up with a superb performance to bowl England out for a below-par 237 after England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and decided to bat first in the 2nd ODI against India at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.
Vinay Kumar was the pick of the bowlers, claiming a career-best 4/30 while Umesh Yadav took two wickets.
Ashwin, Praveen and Jadeja picked up a wicket each to make the life of England batsmen tough.
India started the 2nd ODI on a brighter note as they removed both the English openers-captain Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter- inside the first two overs without any score on the board.
Praveen Kumar consumed Cook in the very first over of the match while Vinay removed wicketkeeper-batsman Kieswetter. Both the batsmen failed to open their accounts.
Just when England seemed to have consolidated after the fall of two early wickets, Vinay Kumar inflicted another blow on the English side, removing Jonathan Trott with a perfect outswinger that kissed his bat through to the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.
Trott, who made 34 off 37 balls with the help of 7 silken boundaries, was looking in a good touch from the time he found himself in the middle in the first over of the match.
Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara then took the attack to the oppositions and stitched a crucial stand to help England cross 100 in the 22nd over.
But England lost the momentum again in the middle when both the set batsmen- Bopara and Pietersen-fell in quick succession.
Ravi Boapa, who was looking well set for a fifty, was picked up cleverly by off-spinner R Ashwin for smooth 36.
In the very next over, Pietersen was outdone by a well-disguised outsinger from Umesh Yadav. KP missed half-century by just 4 runs.
Despite having found themselves on the mat after the loss of 5th wicket, England consolidated tremendously by reaching 200 run-mark through a valuable partnership between Samit Patel and Jonathan Bairstow.
But Patel failed to score a half-century when he was plumbed in front of the wickets by Umesh Yadav, who bowled with a lot of pace in the whole match. Patel made 42 off 52 balls with the help of 2 fours and 2 sixes and was involved in an 86-run stand with Bairstow.
Soon after Patel departure, England’s hope of posting a big total faded as they lost big-hitting Bairstow for 35. Virat Kohli took a well-judged catch in the long-off boundary off Jadeja.
After his fall, the late-order batsmen could not show the determination throwing away their wickets at regular intervals, allowing them to be bowled out for 237 with 16 balls to spare.
Both the teams went into the match with unchanged sides. India now lead the five-match series 2-0 after winning the opening game by 126 runs in Hyderabad.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
England: Alastair Cook (c), Craig Kieswetter (wk), Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Jonny Bairstow, Samit Patel, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach.
First Published: Monday, October 17, 2011, 14:17