Whomping No. 2, India sealing a hefty eight-wicket win with a massive 80 balls to spare. Did England mis-read the conditions in deciding to bat first? They surely weren't helped by the disastrous start to their innings, but on a pretty benign surface 237 was well under par. Vinay Kumar's career-best 4 for 30 did most of the damage, but India looked like a unit and were generally good in the field too. And then came the chase. The openers didn't last long but Gambhir and Kohli looked totally at ease, despite the clear aggression from the England bowlers and fielders. They put on an unbroken 209 - a new Indian record for the third wicket - to put their team 2-0 up. Read all about today's action in George Binoy's report and stick around for the post-match presentations.
As some of you may remember I suggested he would, Virat Kohli gets the allrounder award for this match. It's sponsored by somebody or other, and he collects a huge red cheque for his efforts.
"It's a long way back from 0 for 2," says Alastair Cook. "We got a lot of 30s and 40s but we know that doesn't win a game. Virat and Gambhir showed us how it's done. Credit to the way they played. There was one half chance off Jade, but apart from that they gave us nothing. We prepared well in the practice games, but we haven't translated that to the main games. We need to score more runs, and our fielding wasn't quite to standard."
"I'm glad we're the winning side, it's really good," says MS Dhoni. "Well of course the series in England wasn't a good one for us, but the team showed their character not to lose their temper and still be sociable on the field," he says pointedly. "We needed a good start, Vinay and Praveen gave us that with early wickets. We never let them get a partnership together. Gautam played brilliantly, Virat is a strokeplayer. Gautam's innings at No. 3 was crucial, the ball was still moving a bit when he got in. The pitch was a bit too placid, I'd prefer a bit more turn. I think a turning wicket is a sporting track in India. But this was a good ODI wicket. For us it's all about winning one game at a time, improving ourselves as cricketers, especially with youngsters in the side."
Kohli is also the Man of the Match, of course. "Especially satisfying playing at my home ground," he says coquettishly. "I was really keen to perform at my home ground, really happy with the way I batted. The pitch did a bit early, the english bowlers were getting some bounce early on, but it was coming on to the bat beautifully. On this kind of wicket if you play good cricket shots you can get boundaries. I'm definitely hungry for more, you never know when you can hit a bad patch. I want to continue my form as much as I can, but stay humble in the process."
That's all from your commentary team today. Until next time, goodbye!
