Once Again, M.S. Dhoni, Yuvraj Power India to Series Win

Yuvraj Singh, who spent three years out of India’s ODI side, marked his return with his career-best score – 150 off 127 balls – in his 295th ODI, against England in Cuttack. We’ve got a huge amount of positives to take from the last few games.

Meanwhile, England announced Jonathan Bairstow as the replacement for Alex Hales in T20I squad.

The 256-run stand between MS Dhoni and Yuvraj is the highest fourth-wicket stand for any pair against England.

With Yuvraj ticking along at a run a ball, the team 100 took nearly 20 overs to bring up, but it prompted the previously patient Dhoni to put his foot down, making the most of being dropped by Jake Ball on 43. Dhoni also sat on his haunches, feeling the pitch with his hand.

England were well behind the asking rate but Morgan’s presence ensured the visitors threatened to overhaul India.

Woakes did further damage in his next, bowling Shikar Dhawan (11) off his inside edge to reduce, but that only succeeded in bringing Dhoni to the crease, and he and Yuvraj immediately set about the England attack, though it was the latter who was the aggressor early on. “I knew the times would change”. “The last time I got a hundred was the 2011 World Cup; I am pretty happy that I played a good innings”.

The teams: India: K.L. Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Dhoni reached his half-century off 68 balls as their 100-partnership came off 118 balls.

The 26-year-old Roy, one of the young exciting batsmen in the England team, said he was disappointed not to have carried on and got a hundred, something which he felt could have made a difference to the scoreline.

He was finally out for 150, caught behind off Woakes.

Yuvraj’s innings included 21 fours and three sixes while the former Indian skipper smashed 10 fours and six sixes. The pacers did face a problem in the end, but it did not turn out to be too crucial because of the incredible batting display from the Indians, and they had enough runs to defend.

Sending the English bowlers for a leather hunt, the Indian batsmen hit as many as a dozen sixes and 42 boundaries.

“We were wondering if we had a good start where we would have ended up with good batting”, said captain Kohli.