A career-best 150 from Yuvraj Singh and an assured century from Mahendra Singh Dhoni helped India recover from 25/3 and post 381/6 in the first innings of the second One-Day International in Cuttack on Thursday.

Eoin Morgan won the toss and opted to field and his decision looked to have worked well in the first few overs. KL Rahul hit the first ball of the innings for a four. Shikhar Dhawan took two boundaries through cover in the next over and India looked on course for a good start.

But Chris Woakes broke through, getting Rahul to edge to slip off the first ball of the next over. Virat Kohli, fresh off another match-winning knock in the first ODI, smashed two boundaries down the ground in the first three balls he faced. Woakes though had the last laugh as Kohli reached out to a full ball outside off and nicked to slip where Ben Stokes took a fantastic catch.

Woakes added further misery for India as Dhawan played on to his stumps again to leave his team reeling at 25/3. Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, both experienced hands, took their time to settle in and take India out of the early trouble. Their 50-run partnership came in 68 balls. While Yuvraj Singh in particular looked more aggressive, Dhoni preferred to take his time ensuring that there were no wickets.

The floodgates started to open after Singh crossed his fifty and hit his first six of his knock. He raced to his first ODI hundred since 2011 in 98 balls and reacted with an emotional celebration. It was a brilliant knock in the face of much criticism. He then roared to 150 off 127 balls, posting his highest-ever ODI score. Singh had hit a total of 21 boundaries in his knock.

For his part, Dhoni played a more restrained role, but very important in the scope of the match. There was a typical Dhoni six when he was on 93, hitting it way beyond long on and moving to a century. The real pyrotechnics started in the last ten overs: India added 120 runs with Dhoni hitting four sixes to push India past the 350-run mark. He finally holed out after a 122-ball 134 in the 48th over but had done enough: England will need to do something very special to keep this series alive.

Brief scores:

India 381/6 in 50 overs (Yuvraj Singh 150, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 134; Chris Woakes 4/60, Liam Plunkett 2/91)