The ODI series between India and England continues on Friday and after the gauntlet was laid down in the first game on Tuesday, we should expect another high quality encounter from Pune for a second one with plenty of meaning.
India have already won the Test series and the T20s and they have the first of two chances to claim the spoils in the ODIs here after their fine comeback win on Tuesday. England must win here to force another decider on Sunday.
India
You got the feeling that India were only really ever on the fringes of being competitive for much of the opening match but strong finishes to both innings got them over the line in a match they were well behind in. That will give them a lot of confidence moving forward but they won’t want to go to the well like that very often. While it is their style to set up their innings for a back end burst, there are plenty of risks attached to it.
There is probably a fair bit of improvement in India, certainly with the ball where they had a couple of debutants who were clearly feeling the pinch first up but when they went into the field and came back for their next spell we saw much of why they forced their way into the side. If they could just be a little more proactive with the bat at the top of the order then they will take a lot of beating. Much of that is down to whether Rohit Sharma can bat deep.
England
We are used to England living by the sword and dying by it too and on Tuesday they died by it having got themselves into a wonderful position to win the game from only to throw it away and in truth not really actually getting near to winning. That was a shame because for so much of the match England were in control of the contest but the key moments in both innings got away from them and in the end they succumbed to a tame defeat.
We know that England aren’t going to change their philosophy for the rest of this series. That isn’t what they do and nor should they, but it will be interesting to see if they can ram home the advantage when they are on top and force a deciding match. One thing they will need to do is hold their nerve a little better, especially with the bat where they are without the usual glue that binds their innings together in Joe Root.
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Team News
India will be forced into a change with Shreyas Iyer ruled out of the game. Rishabh Pant would be the obvious replacement although Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill are other options. Kuldeep Yadav was terrible in the first game and it remains to be seen whether he gets another outing.
England will have to make two changes with the news Eoin Morgan will miss the rest of this series and Sam Billings will miss this match with the injuries they sustained in the first game. It would appear that Liam Livingstone and Dawid Malan will be straight replacements. Reece Topley and Matt Parkinson will be hoping for a game too.
Betting
I took the sixes line to be covered in the first match of the series and it was covered within about 10 overs of the second innings so I don’t really see a need to come away from that, especially as India are going to replace Iyer, a player who doesn’t hit many sixes and didn’t hit any in the opening match, with either Rishabh Pant or Suryakumar Yadav who hit a lot more of them. The England changes see a six hitter in Liam Livingstone coming in and Morgan and Billings only hit one six themselves anyway.
The line was 14.5 on Tuesday and it remains that here. There is probably more to come in the six hitting department from England given that Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler failed to register a single maximum in that first game while Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya all went without hitting a six as well. That first game ended with 18 sixes despite England not really batting all that well after the first 10 or so overs of their innings. There is more than enough to think we’ll get to 15 again here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 14.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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