India celebrates clean sweep with impressive gains

Ahmedabad: India dominated England, securing victories in Nagpur, Cuttack, and once again in front of a massive crowd in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. Despite the impressive turnout of over 60,000 spectators, the expansive Narendra Modi stadium still appeared spacious. However, the Indian team left the visitors feeling outclassed and defeated.

If England had their moments in the 1-4 T20 series loss, they took home very few positives in this ODI series whitewash. In pursuit of India’s 356, England were bowled out for 214 in 34.2 overs, a victory margin of 142 runs.

Shubman Gill is the adopted cricket hero in Ahmedabad. The Punjab batter may not speak the language of the locals, but he has acquired mastery over language of the ground conditions here. Gill added another chapter to his prolific record at Ahmedabad by notching up his sixth hundred across international cricket and IPL.

For the first few overs, Gill was carrying Virat Kohli, whose indecisiveness outside off-stump seemed to resurface. While Kohli played and missed with an expressive collage of oohs and aahs, Gill whipped and caressed the ball with equal command.

As Gill took charge of the proceedings and England’s new-ball pair of Mark Wood and Saqib Mahmood were phased out of the attack, Kohli began to come into his own. With England content to use up their fifth bowlers’ quota with part-timers, Gill and Kohli began to make merry. Their 107-ball 116-run second wicket partnership was broken by Adil Rashid, who got Kohli out for the eleventh time, leaving India at 122/2 in 19 overs.

Kohli has issues to address. If it’s not pacers teasing his outside edge or the left-arm orthodox spinners troubling him, the leg-spinners seem to have his number in white-ball cricket. Then again, you wouldn’t bet against an ODI run machine. His 52 here, amid all his technical struggles, is his fifth fifty-or-more score in the last nine innings.

If the Gill-Kohli stand was swift, the Gill-Shreyas Iyer partnership that followed was breezier. With the left-right theory being parked aside, the two right-handers took India past 200 in 30 overs and looked good to help India double the score, but for a below-par output at the death.

Gill eased Wood past midwicket for an effortless boundary to bring up his ton in 95 balls. A smart innings, all his three sixes came straight down the ground, most of his boundaries came square and he kept himself busy with singles and twos. Not until Rashid foxed him with a full googly to foil his attempted sweep, did Gill (112 off 102 balls) finally falter.

Before and after Gill’s exit, Iyer looked in total control. Serving another reminder to the team management of how wrong they were to not consider him a shoe-in for the first choice playing 11 in the series.

He was fortuitous that Kohli’s injury gave him an opening in the first ODI. The No 4 batter consolidated his position following up on his fluent 59 and 44 with a fast-paced 78 (64b, 8x4, 2x6). From 275/4 before the final ten, England managed to restrict India to 357, which was still the highest total in the series. Another strong show by Rashid (10-0-64-4) was the only bright spark for England in their sorry bowling tale.

With the series in the bag, India chose to give game time to some untested bowlers in the series. Varun Chakravarthy missed out with a sore right calf but the rest of the Indian bowlers did no wrong. Even as England raced away to another rapid start with 60 runs coming in the first six, Arshdeep Singh was smart enough to ring in his slower balls early and sent back both the England openers, Phil Salt 23 (21b) and Ben Duckett 34 (22b).

The hosts also wanted to explore if they could control the middle overs in Ravindra Jadeja’s absence. Kuldeep Yadav (8-0-38-1) was up to the task. He’s been India’s best in the middle phase for many years, but the manner in which his wrong-beat right-handed Ton Banton (38) would have boosted his confidence, on return from injury.

This was also an opportunity for Axar Patel, overshadowed by Jadeja’s brilliance in the series to shine through. By yorking Joe Root (24) with his angled delivery from around the wicket, he was able to deliver a body blow to England.

Even Harshit Rana, who had another expensive start with the new ball, successfully struck back with a fiery spell with the old ball. His back-of-the length deliveries angling in shattered the stumps of Harry Brook and Jos Buttler.

Liam Livingstone was softened up with bouncers, before Washington Sundar prized him out, leaving England to think if the big hitter’s part-time spin made up enough for his batting limitations in the longer of the two white ball formats.

Livingstone’s troubles spoke for England’s frailties in the series; their playing personnel unable to adapt to 50-over cricket and going into the Champions Trophy, that doesn’t augur for much.

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