Cuttack, Feb 9 (IANS) Captain Rohit Sharma broke a long lean run with the bat by hitting a sparkling 119 and guided India to a four-wicket win over England in the second ODI at the Barabati Stadium on Sunday.

Rohit’s masterly 32nd ODI century, laced with 12 fours and seven sixes, along with Shubman Gill’s 60 and handy knocks from Shreyas Iyer (44) and Axar Patel (41 not out) helped India chase down 305 with 33 balls remaining and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

But seeing a rampaging Rohit getting back to his best self with the bat must have brought in tons of relief to him and many important personnel in Indian cricket. It was a knock where Rohit was in his usual flow with the bat – the free-flowing shots, good use of wrists and impeccable timing – all combining to give the fans’ their money’s worth.

Chasing 305, Rohit got going by getting a thick edge flying over backward point for four off Gus Atkinson in the second over. From there, Rohit’s innings took a sublime turn – flicking Atkinson off his wrists for six and carving Saqib Mahmood for a maximum.

From the other end, Shubman Gill was pristine – playing his trademark short-arm jab and flick over the in-field to collect two boundaries. Rohit used his hands well to hoist Mahmood over long-off for six, before Gill got one to fly over outside edge for a boundary.

After a floodlight failure over the long-off fence held up play for 35 minutes, Rohit re-started in imperious fashion – glancing Mahmood over fine leg for four, and followed it up by smacking a six over long-on. He welcomed Adil Rashid with a sweep going for four, before cutting through point for another boundary to get his fifty in just 30 balls.

After the power-play ended, Gill slog-swept Rashid for six, before short arm-jabbing and pulling Mark Wood four boundaries. When Rashid was back, Gill kept finding extra cover fence twice for boundaries before getting a splendid 15th ODI fifty.

With Rohit dispatching Gus Atkinson for four and six respectively, followed by Gill pulling and glancing Jamie Overton for boundaries, the chase was already looking like a one-way traffic for India. But Overton bounced back by getting rid of Gill by executing an off-stump yorker to perfection, thus ending the 136-run opening partnership.

Rashid joined the wicket-taker’s party by getting a ball to turn away at the last moment and caught the feather edge of Virat Kohli’s bat, which was detected by UltraEdge on review, leading to the batter being dismissed for five.

After Shreyas Iyer got off the mark against Overton, Rohit swept Rashid for four and dispatched Overton for six, before getting his century by dancing down the pitch to hit the leg-spinner over mid-off for a six and bring up his 32nd ODI century in a nonchalant style.

Rohit didn’t slow down after reaching his century – reverse-sweeping and glancing Rashid for fours, before carving Wood over backward point for another boundary. After Iyer whipped and pulled twice to get two fours and a six off Wood, Rohit toe-ended a slog to short mid-wicket off a full toss from Liam Livingstone and departed for 119 off 90 balls.

After Rohit’s departure, Iyer and Axar Patel slowed down a bit, with the latter hitting the boundaries. But on the last ball of the 37th over, a mix-up in search for a second run resulted in Iyer’s run-out for 44, which began a slight wobble for India.

KL Rahul fell for 10 after trying to pull a short ball from Overton, but gave a glove edge behind to Salt. Hardik Pandya took two fours off Atkinson before pulling the pacer straight to mid-wicket. But Axar and Jadeja ensured India got over the line, as the latter hit a lovely inside-out cover drive for four to get an emphatic win for the hosts’

Brief Scores: England 304 in 49.5 overs (Joe Root 69, Ben Duckett 65; Ravindra Jadeja 3-35) lost to India 308/6 in 44.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 119, Shubman Gill 60; Jamie Overton 2-27) by four wickets

--IANS

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