IND vs ENG, 2nd ODI: England defeat India by 6 wickets to level series 1-1

It was absolute carnage in Pune on Friday as Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow made light work of a 337-run target against India in the 2nd ODI to level the 3-match series at 1-1 by defeating India by 6 wickets. The duo added 175 runs for the 2nd wicket in just 18.5 overs as England cruised past the finish line in just 43.3 overs despite stuttering a bit towards the end.

England fell short of a 317-run target by 66 runs in the 1st ODI despite a 135-run opening stand on Tuesday. An overly-aggressive approach led to their downfall as they lost 5 wickets for just 41 runs after the strong opening stand to slip to a big defeat.

On Friday, there was another 100-plus stand between their openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow and there was a similar collapse as



well. England went from 285 for 1 to 287 for 4 in a span of 2 overs. Stokes fell short of his 4th ODI hundred by just a run. Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke the fiery partnership in the 36th over.

England lost Jonny Bairstow in the following over as Prasidh Krishna returned to pick up the big wicket. There was some panic in the visitors' dressing room when stand-in captain Jos Buttler departed in the same over after getting an unplayable yorker from Krishna.

However, Stokes and Bairstow had done enough to make sure England got past the finish line despite the mini period where they stuttered a bit. Liam Livingstone and Dawid Malan added an unbeaten 49-run stand in just 42 balls for the 5th wicket as the visitors live to fight another day in the ODI series.