The Indian team made a cautious start with the bat in the ongoing first ODI of the three-match series against England at the Maharashtra Cricket Association in Pune. The hosts will be looking to continue their fine run against England after winning the Test and the T20I series. However, in the third over of the first innnings, an unsusal incident occured as usually, a cricket ball is damaged or deformed after being in use for a long time or when the batsmen smashed the ball all across the ground and umpires decied to replace.
On the other hand, the visitors had suffered losses despite winning had started both the series with a win before India came from behind to emerge victorious on both occasions. With momentum on their side, the hosts are favorites for the ODIs as well. Team India has a formidable record against England in ODIs at home. The Indian team has not lost a series at home to England since the 1984/85 season and would be looking to continue the dominating run.
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Talking about the ongoing game, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started cautiously after Eoin Morgan asked the hosts to bat first after winning the won the toss. With Mark Wood and Sam Curran making teh most of the support they wer egetting from the pitch early on, both the Indian openers played defensively. Things became worse for Rohit when he suffered a painful blow on his elbow off Wood’s bowling, but he continued batting.
In the first five overs, Dhawan and Rohit could manage only 10 runs before adding 29 more in the next five. However, Rohit was dismissed onn the first ball of the 16th over. Before his departure, he scored 28 runs off 42 balls with the help of 4 fours. Coming back to the ball changing incident, thus it was surprising when the ball which was being used in the ongoing match had to be replaced as early as the 3rd over. The reason behind the replacement was a hole in the ball.
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The on-field umpire had decied to take the new ball after just 16 deliveries. One of the reasons if not the only reason behind the hole on the ball might be the four that was hit by Shikhar Dhawan on the previous delivery. It seems that ball had hit any protrusion close to the boundary ropes.
