After Adil Rashid’s beautiful bowling, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan’s unbeaten 186-run partnership eased for England to secure a comfortable 8 wickets victory against the visiting side India in the third ODI of the three-match ODI series at Leeds on Tuesday. This victory also secured England’s series victory by the 2-1 margin.
England batsman and the Player of the Series winner Root feels fantastic to win this big series while the Player of the Match winner in the third game, Adil Rashid, feels very great after dismissing Indian skipper Virat Kohli with a fantastic delivery.
Root feels it was a good wicket where he scored the second consecutive ODI century, just after the Lord’s game.
Root said, “It feels fantastic to come into a big series and perform well as a side. It’s a testament to the hard work the guys did. We set the tone early with the ball, and kept taking wickets in the middle overs. In the death, we were good too, rather ruthless. Me and Morgan, we were calm and collected. It was on the slower side, but it was a good wicket. We could hit through the line.”
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Chasing down the 257-run target, Root and skipper Morgan put an unbroken 186-run partnership for the third wicket which secured an easy victory in the series decider game.
Talking about the chasing period, Root thanked the bowling unit and said, “There was no scoreboard pressure, because of the hard work the bowlers did in the beginning of the game, so it was just about making sure we build a partnership and thankfully we managed to do that today. It’s about putting faith in your game and backing your ability, so I’m happy I have done well in the last two games and I’ll take the confidence into the Tests.
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While the English Test captain Root believes the no.1 Test side India is a strong Test team, he is also hopeful about his team’s success in the upcoming five-match Test series, starting from August 1.
Root said on that, “We’ve done well here over the last few years. The pressure of this being a must-win game was important and I am happy I contributed. The Test series will be exciting. India has played well over the last few years, and we did well against Pakistan recently too, so hopefully we can replicate that in this series as well.”
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On the other hand, the leg-spinner Adil Rashid credited the pacers to provide a good start that was continued by the spinners later. The Player of the Match winner had the bowling figure of 10-0-49-3.
He said, “All the seamers bowled really well. Me and Moeen (Ali) kept it tight and got rewards. It’s important to stick to our strengths. The seamers, Mo and I did exactly that. It’s important to play well in the nets and that’s where you need to get your confidence.
He bowled Indian skipper Virat Kohli (71) at a crucial time with a brilliant delivery that surprised everyone including Kohli himself.
Talking about that great moment, Rashid said, “It gives you confidence to dismiss someone like Kohli because he’s one of the best players in the world. It’s nice to play at my home ground at Headingley and incredible crowd support here today as well, so it was fantastic.”
