Key events
29th over: India 161-4 (Washington 9, Axar 0) A good over from Jacks, one from it. Though India remain strong favourites, England have given themselves a sniff. What more can anyone ask for?
28th over: India 160-4 (Washington 8, Axar 0) Axar Patel is the new batter, so England have two left-handers to explore.
WICKET! India 160-4 (Rahul b Tongue 1)
Hello. KL Rahul drags a cut onto his stumps to give Josh Tongue his first ODI wicket. India have lost two in six balls, and Shubman Gill is being force-fed pickle juice as we speak.
27th over: India 157-3 (Washington 6, Rahul 0) Replays show that Shreyas made a terrible mess of that run. First he veered away from the ball, which gave Brook a clear path to hit the stumps, then he looked over his shoulder to see where the ball was. After the fortnight he’s had, that will frustrate the hell out of him.
WICKET! India 157-3 (Shreyas run out 35)
Jofra Archer’s return brings a wicket, though not as England intended. Washington takes a quick single to mid-on, the non-striker Shreyas doesn’t run in a straight line and Brook beats him with an excellent direct hit.
26th over: India 150-2 (Shreyas 34, Washington 1) Washington Sundar walks out at No5.
Gill retires hurt on 80
Yep, Shubman Gill is walking gingerly from the field. He has played a charming innings, 80 from 75 balls with 11 fours and a six, and could potentially return after on to complete his hundred. Not sure it’s worth the risk though.
Those 80 runs have lifted Gill’s average to extraordinary heights: 60.57. That’s an all-time record among the Test-playing nations. Dawid Malan is fourth on the list as well.
25.4 overs: India 149-2 (Gill 80, Shreyas 34) Gill pulls Josh Tongue easily for four, shouts “Fakk off!” after missing a cut stroke and then calls the physio on for more treatment. He might have to retire hurt.
25th over: India 145-2 (Gill 76, Shreyas 34) For most of the 21st century England have been good at either red-ball or white-ball cricket, but rarely both at the same time. This time are taking that to the next level by splitting their form in the two white-ball formats. Defeat today will be their 13th in 19 ODIs since Brendon McCullum took over, which contrasts pretty heavily with a record of 20 wins in the last 23 T20Is.
24th over: India 141-2 (Gill 74, Shreyas 32) Gill winces with cramp after sweeping Jacks up and over for four. This is like an elegant variation on the old line about Gordon Greenidge batting on one leg.
Ignore that change-of-ends business: Will Jacks is coming on, the fourth different spinner in as many overs. But first, Gill needs treatment for cramp.
23rd over: India 135-2 (Gill 69, Shreyas 31) That Bethell over was to facilitate a change of ends for Rashid, who has been replaced by Dawson. Gill inches closer to a hundred, India to their victory target.
22nd over: India 129-2 (Gill 65, Shreyas 30) Jacob Bethell is brought into the attack before Liam Dawson, a surprising decision that doesn’t have the desired effect. Shreyas helps a poor ball to the fine-leg boundary; Gill lifts a regal drive over extra cover for four. India are officially cruising.
21st over: India 119-2 (Gill 59, Shreyas 26) Gill decides to go after Rashid, hitting him for two fours in three balls. He’s batting beautifully and has 59 from 56 balls.
Fifty for Shubman Gill
20th over: India 110-2 (Gill 51, Shreyas 25) A short ball from Curran is under-edged for four by Gill to bring up an elegant and authoritative half-century from 51 balls. We shouldn’t be surprised: he scored 430 runs in last summer’s Edgbaston Test.
Another bouncer from Curran, this time to Shreyas, whooshes away for five byes. That’s an especially risky delivery with Buttler up to the stumps. England are trying everything but it feels like a futile endeavour.
19th over: India 97-2 (Gill 45, Shreyas 23) Not much spin for Rashid, who is mixing up his pace and flight as usual. India have started watchfully against him, an eminently sensible approach with the required rate still below a run a ball.
18th over: India 94-2 (Gill 43, Shreyas 22) A double bowling change: Archer off, Curran on. He almost buys a wicket when Shreyas top-edges a pull just short of the man at fine leg.
17th over: India 89-2 (Gill 41, Shreyas 21) Adil Rashid replaces Tongue. He’s on the money from the start and concedes three singles from a quiet first over.
16th over: India 86-2 (Gill 40, Shreyas 19) Archer is still getting to lift unpleasantly from a length. But Gill is playing his well, Shreyas is hanging in there and India have already seen off seven of Archer’s ten overs.
Drinks: India need 179 from 210 balls
15th over: India 80-2 (Gill 39, Shreyas 16) Tongue beats Gill, this time through lack of bounce. Gill parks that, nothing he could do, and persuades the next ball to the cover boundary. He is just beautiful to watch.
14th over: India 75-2 (Gill 35, Shreyas 15) England are putting all their eggs in the wicket basket. No, wicket. Jofra Archer replaces Sam Curran and bowls very straight to Shreyas, everything just back of a length. Shreyas fences a couple of runs to fine leg before snicking through the vacant slip cordon for a single.
With the required rate irrelevant at this stage (5.11 per over), every wicketless over moves India closer to victory.
13th over: India 70-2 (Gill 34, Shreyas 12) Harry Brook punches the ground in frustration after his misfield allows Shreyas to get off strike.
Tongue soon has another look at Shreyas, who is beaten outside off and then spoons one just short of backward point. Lovely bowling from Tongue, who is an intriguing addition to this ODI team. Next year’s World Cup is in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, where the pitches should have plenty of life.
12th over: India 67-2 (Gill 33, Shreyas 11) A wide half-volley from Curran is dealt with appropriately by Shreyas. Later in the over he edges a forcing shot just wide of the diving gully.
His partner Gill has played some beautiful strokes already. There’s another, a hold-the-pose cover drive that races away for four. Not for the last time today, England need a wicket.
11th over: India 58-2 (Gill 29, Shreyas 6) Tongue changes ends to replace Archer, so England are still hunting wickets. Might as well, it’s their only chance of winning. Shreyas wallops a cover drive that is brilliantly stopped by the diving Duckett.
10th over: India 56-2 (Gill 28, Shreyas 5) Sam Curran has a zingy bouncer that could be awkward on this pitch. He tries one to Gill but it’s too short and called wide. Three singles complete the scoring for the over.
9th over: India 52-2 (Gill 26, Shreyas 4) Archer beats the new batter Shreyas Iyer, then throws his hands out in frustration when Shreyas flicks between the keeper and leg slip for four. It was in the air but also in the gap. Archer has bowled far better than figures of 5-0-30-1 suggest.
“For any readers wanting to know,” writes Eddy Nason, “this week’s lottery numbers will be 3, 15, 22, 48 and 72…”
You missed one. It’ll be 58, Sam Curran’s shirt number.
WICKET! India 48-2 (Kohli LBW b Archer 5)
With Kohli on strike, Archer is given a fifth over – and it pays off! Kohli has gone for 5. It was a classic set-up, a short ball that Kohli gloved for four and then a full, straight delivery. Kohli missed a flick to leg and was plumb LBW, so plumb that he and Shubman Gill barely discussed a review. Excellent bowling.
8th over: India 44-1 (Gill 26, Kohli 1) Kohli denies Curran a wicket maiden by turning his third ball round the corner for a single. He’s probably already eyeing an unbeaten century.
WICKET! India 43-1 (Rohit c Brook b S Curran 11)
Sam Curran, never in doubt. He strikes third ball when Rohit gallivants down the pitch and slices the ball high to Harry Brook at mid-off.
Rohit’s dismissal is greeted by huge cheers from the India fans; here comes Virat Kohli.
7th over: India 43-0 (Rohit 11, Gill 26) Rohit flick-pulls Archer delightfully over square leg for four. There’s still plenty in this pitch, as Archer proves with a sharp lifter that beats Gill later in the over. Gill responds with successive square drives for two, both high-class strokes.
“What are your thoughts on Sam Curran’s bowling on this track?” writes Eddy Nason. “He normally manages to find a way into a game (and it definitely wasn’t with the bat today).”
I’d prefer Vincent van der Bijl’s bowling on this pitch for sure, but Curran has become an important part of the team so I wouldn’t have left him out. Had they played an extra seamer I think it would/should have been instead of Jacks or Dawson.
6th over: India 32-0 (Rohit 4, Gill 22) A short ball from Tongue is picked up for six by Gill. There was a hint of top edge but the line (too straight) and the length (not short enough) made it a fairly safe shot.
Two balls later, Gill plays a stunning back-foot punch through extra cover for four more. That’s an unbelievable stroke!
5th over: India 22-0 (Rohit 4, Gill 12) The bounce in this Edgbaston pitch evokes the West Indies Test of 1995, when England were bulldozed inside two-and-a-bit days and Robin Smith batted with extraordinary skill and courage. That pitch was worse, downright dangerous, but we haven’t seen too many Edgbaston surfaces with such extreme bounce since then.
4th over: India 19-0 (Rohit 4, Gill 9) The extra bounce continues to cause trouble, with Rohit cutting Tongue just short of gully. Another threatening over from Tongue – but another wicketless one too. If India get through this new-ball spell unscathed, they will almost certainly win the game.
3rd over: India 18-0 (Rohit 4, Gill 8) Rohit is beaten twice by Archer – a spectacular whiffy lifter and a nipbacker that cuts him in half. England would love to have another quick bowler, either Saqib Mahmood or Gus Atkinson, on this pitch; then again, that would have meant leaving out Liam Dawson, so they might be defending 180 rather than 258.
2nd over: India 16-0 (Rohit 2, Gill 8) Josh Tongue takes the new ball on his ODI debut. His last List A game was in August 2022, when Glamorgan’s batters left him with figures of 9-0-87-0.
His first over starts unpromisingly when Gill flicks imperiously through midwicket for four. But Tongue is in the team to take wickets and almost does so with consecutive deliveries. First Gill gloves a lifter short of gully; then he slices fractionally short of the diving Jacks at point.
Gill’s response is to back away to the next delivery. Tongue tries to follow him but overdoes it to the tune of five wides.
1st over: India 6-0 (Rohit 1, Gill 4) In the T20 series, Jofra Archer was bowling to a 15-year-old opener. Now it’s a 39-year-old, Rohit Sharma, who gets off the mark with a single to mid-off. Just before that he tried to leave outside off stump and deflected the ball past the stumps.
The captain Shubman Gill clips his first ball to fine leg for four. A poor delivery to end an otherwise good over.
Cheers Jim, hello everyone. I come bearing stats: since his recall to the ODI side in 2025 – he didn’t play a game in 2024 – Joe Root is averaging 71 with a strike rate of 93. He has also scored nearly 200 runs since his last ODI dismissal.
The problem for England is that most of the other batters are still working out their best ODI tempo, and until they do not even Root will be able to stop them from posting under-par totals. Even allowing for a pitch that is spicier than expected, India are strong favourites to chase this down. England need wickets plural with the new ball.
James Wallace
Right, I’m off. Rob Smyth will be along in a short while to bring you India’s chase.
Ta and Ta-ra.
Here’s a Guy Hornsby I prepared earlier:
“Considering the muck we were in after 22 overs, this is an excellent recovery to something that’s defendable. But having got to 225-odd it didn’t feel smart cricket from Jofra going for a second six. We end up all out for under 260 when 280+ was on. And with that batting line-up, India will probably have fancied chasing 300, too. But chapeau to Joe Root and especially Liam Dawson. We’ve seen Joe do this in 50 and red-ball formats so many times, we forget how hard it is to do that. I have loved watching him more than any other batter in this century, and I will be distraught when he’s gone. But Dawson has really shown his worth. He may not be a big hitter but he’s no nurdler, so I hope he can take that impetus into the India innings. He’s a canny spinner in the same vein as the excellent Axar. This isn’t over yet, however much India will feel content. Tongue and Archer with the new ball(s) will feel crucial to the result.”
England all out for 258!
Bowled him! Tongue is cleaned up and so are England. Root remains unbeaten on 76 and can polish his halo a bit more as they walk off. Without him and the gutsy knock from Liam Dawson England wouldn’t have a hope in heck. As it stands they have a wafffer thin chance IF they get on a roll with the ball as India did.
WICKET! Adil Rashid st Rahul b Patel 1 (England 258-9)
Rashid dance down, misses. Stumped. Josh Tongue arrives as the last man for England.
Brar has to depart, hopefully it is just a bad dose of cramp. Axar Patel comes on instead and…
Gurnoor Brar pulls up with cramp as he runs in to start the 48th over. The physio comes on for a stretch and no doubt a slurp of something.
47th over: England 257-8 (Root 75, Rashid 1) Lovely from Root, Bumrah goes short and Root ramps over the keeper for four. Seven off the over and crucially zero wickets.
46th over: England 250-8 (Root 69, Rashid 0) Four overs remain and Jasprit Bumrah will bowl two of them. Adil Rashid strolls out to join Joe Root.
