India massively outclassed England in the first ODI, winning the game by a huge 10-wicket margin. An emphatic win brought about an upsurge in India’s ODI rankings as well and now Men in Blue have moved to third, surpassing Pakistan in the process.
India, who were fourth on the ranking table prior to Tuesday’s game with 105 rating points, earned three points after England’s demolition. With 108 points, the Asian side have now moved to third leaving behind Pakistan who are with 106 points on the chart. Earlier last month, Pakistan had surpassed India after their clean sweep of the West Indies in Pakistan. Both India’s and Pakistan’s upsurge has been helped by Australia’s downfall who slipped to fifth after their ODI series loss against Sri Lanka.
In the meanwhile, New Zealand continue to sit comfortably at the top with 127 points with England also significantly ahead of India, at number two with 122 points. India could however claw back the lead in the remaining two ODI games against England.
Talking of the first ODI, India steamrolled the English side after sensational bowling in the first innings and sensible batting in the second. Having won the toss, India decided to bowl first. This decision turned out to be a great stroke of luck as Indian bowlers led by Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc on a pitch that favoured swing. None of the English batters were able to counter Bumrah and co’s bowling and faltered at a score of 110/10 in just 25.2 overs. Bumrah with a bowling figure of 7.2-19-6 came up with his career-best performance in ODI. Mohammed Shami also supported Bumrah with a three-wicket haul of his own. The other wicket was taken by Prasidh Krishna.
Chasing this small target was made too easy by the Indian openers Rohit Sharma(76*) and Shikhar Dhawan (31*). They went across the finish line in just 18.4 overs without losing a wicket. India and England clash again in the second ODI at Lord’s on 14th July.
