ENG vs IND 2nd ODI: Root guides England to series-levelling win in Cardiff

Coming into the second one-day international match between England and India at Cardiff, Sophia Gardens, the recent and past history had always favoured the teams batting second. Eight out of the previous 12 ODI games played at this ground, were won by the teams chasing.

On Thursday, Jul 16, 2026, for a brief while, India threatened to break that streak as Indian pace batter, including Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna dismissed both the English openers, Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell cheaply with just eight runs on the board as England came out chasing 234 runs.

But things soon started going downhill for India with the arrival of England’s star batter, Joe Root to the crease. He played a brilliant innings once again, underlining why he is rated as one of the best batters of all-time and scored an unbeaten 99 to take England over the finish line. With this win, England has levelled the three-match series 1-1.

Root was on 98 when the hosts still needed 19 runs to win. But, England’s tailender, Gus Atkinson scored bulk of those runs to usher the win with nearly six overs to spare. The series decided will be played at the home of cricket, Lord’s this Sunday, and it promises to be a cracker of a decider.

When Ben Duckett edged the first ball of the chase from Jasprit Bumrah to Ishan Kishan, who replaced an ill K.L. Rahul as the wicketkeeper and Bethell also went early caught behind, India had believed they had pinned England on the backfoot. After the loss of early wickets, India sensed hope of pulling off a win even with an under par score on board.

After captain Harry Brook departed early on 16, Root took control of the innings, as he had done many times before. He had a sedate start to his inning, surviving the Indian pace attack and giving everyone an example of how to grind it out in the middle.

He built a crucial fourth wicket partnership with all-rounder Sam Curran of 41 runs that steadied the ship for England. Later he got involved in another important partnership of 72 runs with Will Jacks for the sixth-wicket. The duo played sensibly combining big shots and careful shot selection to bring England closer to victory.

England Pacers Kept the Indian Batters Under Check

After being asked to bat first by Brook, the Indian top-order made more than half of the team’s total. But the rest of the team failed to contribute much, except Shreyas Iyer who emerged as the top-scorer for India with 66 runs. His innings included five fours and two sixes. What could potentially worry Indians is that four of their top six batters, including Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Washington Sundar lost their wicket trying to play a cross-batted shot across the line.

Rohit played a shaky innings of 26 during which he played his trademark pull shot to hit Gus Atkinson for a six. His opening partner, Gill played a few delectable shots during his brief innings of 31 but failed to convert his start and fell to Atkinson and caught at covers by Duckett.

Virat Kohli played with caution and built a useful partnership with Shreyas Iyer, restoring some stability to the innings. He made a well-compiled 64 before losing his wicket. Shreyas continued to bat sensibly, holding the innings but at the other end wickets kept tumbling as England bowlers kept a tight leash on Indian and eventually bowled them out for an under par score of 233.