IND vs ENG: Varun Chakravarthy impresses on ODI debut, bowls economical spell in Cuttack
Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy impressed on debut with an economical spell in Cuttack on Sunday, 9 February. The spinner bowled his full quota of overs in Cuttack and only conceded 3 boundaries and a six in his first outing.
Chakravarthy replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the line-up on Sunday, in India’s 2nd ODI match of the series. Chakravarthy was brought into the bowl in the 9th over of the match, when Phil Salt and Ben Duckett were going full blast against India in the powerplay.
Varun struck in his second over of the match, picking up the wicket of Phil Salt, who was looking to cut away alongside Ben Duckett. Varun drew a false shot from Salt, when the batter wanted to hit the spinner for a six. Salt top-edged the ball and handed an easy catch to Ravindra Jadeja at mid-on, who walked towards the wicket and converted the simple chance.
IND vs ENG: Varun Chakravarthy 2nd oldest Indian to debut in ODIs
From there on, Varun provided control, choking out England in the middle overs. Varun was hit for a six in his 6th over of the match (19th of the innings), when Harry Brook hit Varun against the spin over long off. After that, Varun was taken off the attack and was once again brought in after the 30th over.
At that time, Varun had a good battle against Joe Root and Liam Livingstone and troubled both batters. Varun was hit for only three boundaries in the innings and maintained India’s control against the England batters. Varun completed his spell in the 44th over of the match, giving away just 54 runs and taking one wicket.
Varun’s pressure from one end helped Ravindra Jadeja pick up his wickets. Jadeja was able to produce false shots from the batters and took three wickets once again in the 2nd ODI match.
England, however, were able to save up wickets, which helped them play aggressively in the final 10 overs. Liam Livingstone’s 41 off 32 balls helped England go past 300 runs for the first time in the series. England were looking good for 310-315, but three back-to-back run-outs restricted them to 304 runs.
