Cuttack:Rohit Sharma's record-breaking century and Ravindra Jadeja's three-wicket haul powered India to beat England in the second ODI by 4 wickets at Barabati Stadium here on Sunday, February 9, 2025. With this win, India sealed the three-match series 2-0 with a game remaining. This is India's seventh successive bilateral ODI series win at home against England.
Jadeja picked up his second three-for of the series and then Rohit smashed a scintillating century to announce his comeback in form. Jadeja finished with figures of 35/3 in his 10 overs, dismissing open Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Overton while Rohit racked up his 32nd century in just 77 balls and ended up scoring 119 runs off 76 balls, striking rate of 134.2 with the help of 7 sixes and 9 fours.
Rohit Sharma hit the visiting bowlers like a storm in the powerplay. His innings reminded everyone of his swashbuckling innings in the ODI World Cup 2023. He raced to fifty off just 30 balls and once the powerplay was done his opening partner Shubman Gill fired on all cylinders.
When those two were batting it looked like India would win the game with some 15-20 overs to spare. Both the openers didn't let the opposition bowlers settle down and bowl in one place. They whacked Adil Rashid, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, and Gus Atkinson. They didn't even let Mark Wood put pressure on them.
England bowled down the leg side quite often and paid the price. They bowled fullish deliveries to start with as well. Even when the ball started turning Rohit looked in great control and hit sixes on his way to his 32nd ODI hundred silencing all critics. This was also his second-fastest hundred and fastest vs England in ODI cricket. Rohit's knock also saw him surpass (10,987) Rahul Dravid’s 10,889 runs to enter the top-10 ODI run-scorers list. He now requires 13 runs to complete 11,000 ODI runs.
Back after missing out on the Nagpur ODI because of a swollen knee, Virat Kohli (5) fell cheaply edging an Adil Rashid leg-break. India continued their experiment to push Axar up at No. 5 and he batted well alongside Shreyas before a miscommunication while KL Rahul (10) and Hardik Pandya (10) also fell cheaply. But there was hardly any run-rate pressure and Axar Patel (41 not out) held his ground as he along with Ravindra Jadeja (11 not out) completed the formalities with 33 balls to spare.
Earlier, Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja excelled with figures of 3/35, helping India bowl out England for 304 after they opted to bat. Jadeja's key wickets included Ben Duckett (65 off 56) and Joe Root (69 off 72), which disrupted England's strong start. Despite a solid foundation from Duckett, Root, and skipper Jos Buttler (34 off 35), England seemed headed for a 330-plus total at 200/3 but struggled to build momentum due to Jadeja’s disciplined bowling.