India vs England, 2nd ODI at Cuttack, IND vs ENG, Feb 09 2025 - Match Result

10.10pm Rohit has hit form in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy and India have wrapped up this series, with one game to go. As for England, they have a few questions to answer. Can they end this tour with a win in Ahmedabad? Do join us for the third - and final - ODI on February 12. Until then, this is Al Muthu signing off on the behalf of Vithushan Ehantharajah and Chandan Duorah. Goodbye for now

Rohit Sharma, India captain and Player of the Match: It was good and really enjoyed being out there, scoring some runs for the team. Important game with the series on the line but I broke it down to pieces about how I wanted to bat. Longer than T20s and shorter than Tests and I wanted to break it down. I wanted to bat as deep as possible and that was my focus. Looking at the pitch - when you play on black soil, it tends to skid on a bit and you have to show the full face of the bat initially. Then they bowled into the body and kept it on the stumps and that's where I prepared my plan and tried to access the gaps. Got very good support from Gill and Shreyas as well. Enjoy batting with Gill. Very classy player and doesn't seem to get overawed by the situation and the numbers are there as well, if I'm not wrong, for Gill. The middle overs are quite important and that's where the game can go either side. If you squeeze the middle overs, you need not worry much about the death. The middle overs is very crucial and even in Nagpur, we squeezed them and got wickets. When you keep taking wickets, the run-scoring is not easy. We want to keep getting better as well. Nothing specific we want to work on but overall we want to keep getting better as a player and team. That is what we want to do. As long as guys are clear about what they are supposed to do, if they keep doing that not much to think about.

Jos Buttler, England captain: We got into some nice positions with the bat but we need a few of us to catch fire and push us to 350. Another great innings from Rohit; he's been doing it in ODI cricket for a while. Maybe it skidded on a bit and played well but the opposition played well. We tried to get to 330-350, maybe that would have been defendable. Just keep taking steps in the right direction though results are not there but we need to keep going.

Shubman Gill says he was feeling good when he was batting out there. And that batting with Rohit was fun. Today he took on the bowlers. This is how he's been batting in ODIs in the past couple of years. The way he dominated the fast bowlers was a treat to watch. The pitch was good to bat on, the odd ball was skidding (low). The chat between Rohit and me was simple, just play according the ball and once set, try to dominate.

Nachiket: "The other thing India would be really happy with is Jadeja's bowling form in ODIs. He has regained some of his consistency wrt length"

Russ : "England would do well to take a cue from India and be flexible with their batting line up.. There's no way Jos should be batting that low after such a positive start"

Samrat Ahuja: "Jadeja managing to hit the boundary to finish off both the matches in successful run chase in the series!!"

Mustafa Moudi : "Steve Smith in the Morning and Rohit in the Evening - My Day Begins and Ends with a Skipper Winning the Player of the Match !!"

Nazir ahamed : "Has anyone noticed that Axar patel is getting one of the finest all-rounder in all formats."

9.44pm A century for Rohit Sharma. Pretty much top of the pile for things that India needed going into the Champions Trophy. They've also been getting other good news, with Shreyas' form and Axar's versatility with the bat. But seeing their captain back to somewhere close to his best must have put a lot of smiles in a lot of important people's faces. Virat Kohli still needs runs. Jasprit Bumrah's fitness status still needs clearing up. Varun Chakravarthy has put his name up for CT selection. More things going right than wrong for this team.

England, meanwhile, will be wondering whether they're cut out to handle conditions like this. They were strongly placed to score 330-plus with Joe Root scoring a fifty and Jos Buttler looking set. Then Buttler wasn't able to execute his lofted drive and from there the team sunk. The bowling looked ordinary at best. Occasionally Adil Rashid threatened. Occasionally Mark Wood's pace put India on the back foot. The only time India's batters weren't having it their way was during a 30-minute floodlight failure

Samarth: "It's so surprising that Saqib Mahmood and Overton have fared much better in this tour than the experienced Wood, Archer and Atkinson. "

Bharat: "This chase isn't over yet. Wood could come on and wreak havoc with his pace. India making an unnecessary meal of this chase. Kinda like second breakfast. "

England have gone to Joe Root with two left-handers in the middle. Life in this yet?

abhishek: "What is the reason England's record has been the poorest of all countries ( they have been even poorer than Zimbabwe, Ireland etc) in ODI in India - In last 20 years (Since 2005) they have just won 5 and lost 25. While they have been good in T20 and won Test series. What has gone wrong in 50 overs. India have absolutely bashed them, This includes golden era of English ODI cricket (2015-2023)" --- Spin.