England beat India to level series 1-1
London, July 14 : England dominated with both bat and ball to defeat India by 86 runs in the second One-Day International (ODI) at Lord's here on Saturday.
Having posted a total of 322/7 in their 50 overs, England proceeded to dismiss the visitors for 236 runs.
The hosts have now levelled the three-match series at 1-1. India had thrashed England by eight wickets in the series opener.
The only bright spot for India was the fact that former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni reached two personal milestones during the game by completing 10,000 runs and 300 catches.
The veteran star joined Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid as the only Indians reach the 10,000-run mark in ODIs.
Dhoni is currently on 10,004 ODI runs. Sachin tops the list among Indians with 18,426 runs, Ganguly is second with 11,221 while Dravid is third at 10,768.
Chasing a challenging target, the Indian innings never really gathered any sustained momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
The incisive England bowling was completed by some poor shot selection by the Indian batsmen which saw the visitors struggling at 60/3 in the 11th over.
The bit of resistance by the visitors was produced by skipper Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, who came up with a fighting partnership of 80 runs off 97 deliveries.
But once Moeen Ali had broken the stand by clinching the prized wicket of Kohli, it was all downhill for the Indians.
Soon Adil Rashid bowled Raina, who top scored for India with 46 runs.
Pacer Liam Plunkett, who was in superb form, was the most successful among the England bowlers with figures of 4/46.
Earlier, Joe Root spearheaded a strong batting effort with an unbeaten century to help England post a challenging total.
Although a disciplined Indian bowling attack jolted the hosts at regular intervals, Root kept England sailing as he was involved in a couple of valuable partnerships with Eoin Morgan and David Willey, both of whom posted half-centuries.
Root, who brought up the 12th century of his career, remained unbeaten on 113 runs off 116 balls which included eight boundaries and a six.
Opting to bat first, openers Jason Roy (40) and Jonny Bairstow (38) started cautiously as England crossed the 50-run mark in 7.2 overs.
Last match's hero Kuldeep Yadav drew first for India as he broke the 69-run opening stand in the 11th over, with the wrist spinner sending back Bairstow before dismissing his partner - Roy in the 15th over, leaving England at 86/2.
He finished up with figures of 3/68 runs while Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Hardik Pandya scalped a wicket each.
Root and Morgan stablised the England innings in middle overs with a 103-run partnership for the third wicket.
Morgan produced a steady innings, scoring 53 runs off 51 deliveries as England inched towards the 200-run mark.
Once again, it was Kuldeep who gave the third blow to the hosts, sending back the England skipper in the 31st over, with the scorecard reading 189/3.
Morgan's knock was laced with four boundaries and a six.
Ben Stokes's (5) stay at the crease was short lived as Hardik Pandya struck to scalp the all-rounder's wicket while Umesh and Chahal too, joined the party, dismissing Jos Buttler (4), Moeen Ali (13) respectively.
Despite losing three wickets with the addition of another 50 runs, Root kept England's scorecard ticking as he forged a 83-run partnership with David Willey.
Willey produced a quickfire innings, smashing 50 runs off 31 balls before being stumped in the final ball of England's innings.
Brief scores:
England: 322/7 in 50 overs (Joe Root 113 not out, Eoin Morgan 53, David Willey 50; Kuldeep Yadav 3/68) vs India: 236 in 50 overs (Suresh Raina 46, Virat Kohli 45; Liam Plunkett 4/46).
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
_vb_09.jpeg)
