England destroy India to level ODI series at 1-1

England levelled the ODI series at 1-1 against India after a brilliant chase led by Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes saw them cruise home by six wickets.

The tourists made three changes from the opening game as Dawid Malan, Liam Livingstone and Reece Topley came in for Eoin Morgan (injured), Sam Billings (injured) and Mark Wood (rested) as Jos Buttler captained the side in Morgan’s absence.

England won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to field first and they made a great start, reducing India to 37-2 in the ninth over but a stand of 121 between Virat Kohli (66) and KL Rahul (108).

Kohli was then dismissed by Adil Rashid but it didn’t slow the home side down with Rishabh Pant hitting a destructive 77 in no time at all as he shared 113 with Rahul for the fourth wicket.

India continued to press on the latter part of the innings with Hardik Pandya scoring a rapid 35 to take his side to an impressive score of 336-6 from their 50 overs.

After the interval, England began their response superbly, Bairstow (124) and Jason Roy (55) putting on another 100-run partnership at the top of the innings to get England off to a flying start.

Roy was then run out of a miscommunication between the two but Ben Stokes (99) came in and hit a brilliant knock of his own, sharing 175 with Bairstow for the second wicket to take the game away from this.

However, Stokes and Bairstow fell in quick succession as well as Buttler who went for a duck but debutant Livingstone (27*) and Malan (16*) put on 50 for the fifth wicket to guide England to a comfortable victory with over six overs remaining.

The victory was the sixth highest run chase in ODI cricket history to underline just how impressive a victory it proved to be.

The two sides will get a rest day tomorrow before the decider takes place on Sunday which starts at 9am UK time with it set up perfectly.

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