When the pitch at the Eden Gardens was uncovered for the third and final match on Sunday, it was clear that this wasn’t a 350-plus track, like the ones in Pune and Cuttack earlier in this series. The relaid surface, like the Test match against New Zealand last year, had a generous covering of green on it, and Virat Kohli did not hesitate in opting to bowl first after winning the toss. His counterpart, Eoin Morgan, said he would have done the same.
It was in some ways quite the ideal setting for an ODI. The ball was moving around, but there were as many boundaries to watch in the first 15 overs as there were swings-and-misses from the batsmen. There was a good balance between bat and ball, which made it a lot more exciting to watch than a 350-plus innings score.
As the umpires called for drinks at the end of the 17th over, the England openers, Sam Billings and Jason Roy, had batted extremely well to take their score to 97/0. After the interval, Ravindra Jadeja was given the ball for his second over. He had been flogged for 11 in his first, including a big six off Jason Roy’s bat that brought up the Englishman’s third consecutive half-century of the series.
However, Jadeja’s next two overs yielded as many wickets as both Billings and Roy gifted their wickets in their own unique ways: Billings via a reverse sweep straight to short third-man and Roy by trying to cut a straight delivery that went on to dislodge the stumps. They would turn out to be Jadeja’s 150th and 151st ODI wickets, 37 out of which have been English.
For Roy, it was yet another great half-century that he failed to convert into three figures, for the third straight time in this series. Would it go on to hurt England, again? Morgan and Jonny Bairstow then compiled a partnership, with the England captain continuing from where he left off in Cuttack, where his century took his team close to chasing 382. They put up 84 runs in no time and took England to a position of dominance, before Hardik Pandya became the benefactor of some more benevolence from the visiting batsmen.
The medium-fast bowler picked up three wickets in an eight-over spell where the English batsmen gave the Indian fielders catching practice. From 194/2 in the 34th over, England slipped to 246/6 at the end of the 43rd, as Jasprit Bumrah also picked up a wicket. All of England’s top five batsmen had got starts, but none of them managed to score more than Roy’s 65. And thus, they squandered a great opportunity to post another 350-plus score, which on this pitch would have been quite defendable.
Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes put up 73 in just less than seven overs to take England to 321/8 and give them a fighting chance. 320 is not a bad total on this pitch and the England bowlers should look to exploit the lateral movement. They can also take some hope from the fact that in the last four day/night ODIs played on this ground, the team batting first has won all four times.
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