India floor England at Edgbaston to clinch the series with a game to spare

If we turn the clock back even by a week, who would have thought that the hosts, who have a special knack for bringing out the heavy goods when it comes to the shortest version of the game would submit in docile resignation as an army of blue would swarm over them and claim the prized silverware with one game to spare? It was the same Edgbaston, where India bowed a week ago, which served as the scene for India’s redemption.

With the return of the fifth Test-playing quartet to the starting eleven, the Men in Blue were in no mood to sit back and entertain England’s infringements. There was a major change of affairs early in the innings as Rishabh Pant was promoted to the opening slot and it started pouring boundaries on a bright sunny afternoon at Edgbaston.

Rohit and Pant were off to a fine start as they resorted to India’s hard-hitting approach and the fruits were for everyone to relish. It never felt that the English forces could reel the Indians in as the powerplay was riddled with Indian domination. Much to India’s surprise, English debutant Richard Gleeson started his international career on a high as he bagged the crucial wicket of Rohit Sharma. The Indian captain completely miscued his effort while trying to pull and the English skipper plucked a mid-air ripper to leave the floodgates ajar.

Despite Pant’s flattering belligerence at the other end in the following over, Gleeson would return for a second over to deal a telling blow to the gush of Indian adrenaline as he would bag the all-important wickets of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant off consecutive deliveries to present himself a hat-trick opportunity that would eventually be stalled by Hardik Pandya.

Yadav and Pandya resorted to their usual aggression to steer the Indian ship only for the duo to fall in consecutive deliveries bowled by Jordan, smashing open the floodgates for the English invaders to make merry. However, things weren’t as slick as the English bowlers would have expected as Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja stitched together a coarse brand of resistance that would usually be a dragging enterprise but would keep the Indian innings afloat. Karthik would fall short of the crease despite a flying essay in an effort to flip a single into a double.

Harshal Patel chimed in with a couple of quick boundaries to put together a small yet crucial partnership with Jadeja, the man who would help India reach 170 despite stuttering at 89 for 5 at the halfway mark. India’s new approach of going all-out, even in the face of a potential catastrophe has so far borne fruit with the Indian batters putting in staunch shifts.

With the kind of batting that England came to the fray with, the target could only be labelled competitive at the halfway stage. However, India’s bowling tormentor-in-chief, Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has been savouring the form of his life, conjured another swashbuckling display to bag the big wicket of Jason Roy on the first ball with Rohit Sharma grabbing a thunderous catch at first slip.

The scalp of Roy was just the beginning of England’s end as Kumar would come back with an absolute beauty to remove the English skipper. Despite Liam Livingstone’s early aggression, Jasprit Bumrah cleaned up his timbre, razing through his defences.

Despite Moeen Ali and David Willey’s resilience, the lack of partnerships and electric bowling from the steely cold and calculated Indians would leave England in flames. India would mope up the English resistance within just 121 runs and take an unassailable 2-0 lead to steal the series with the final contest in hand. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the star of the slew as he came up with figures of 3-1-15-3 while Jasprit Bumrah would chip in with impressive numbers of 3-1-10-2.