Raina's ton helps India trip England in second ODI
Suresh Rain's impressive century helped India beat England by 133 runs via Duckworth/Lewis method in the second ODI played in Cardiff on Wednesday.
ESPNcricinfo staff
02-Sep-2014
Suresh Raina smashed his fourth century from just 106 balls • Getty Images
Suresh Raina's impressive century helped India beat England by 133 runs via Duckworth/Lewis method in the second ODI played in Cardiff on Wednesday.
India was off to a shaky start and lost opener Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the eighth over of the match.
Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane dropped anchor and put on a 91-run third-wicket stand. England's back-up fast bowlers, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes, failed to maintain the pressure that James Anderson and Chris Woakes had exerted early in their innings.
James Tredwell finally broke the Rahane-Sharma stand in the 24th over and dismissed Rahane for 41 runs. Sharma was the next to follow and he also fell to Tredwell, for a well-made 52 in the 30th over.
The dismissals brought Raina and captain MS Dhoni to the crease and the duo attacked from the start. The left-hander clubbed his way to his first ODI century in four years and reached three figures from just 75 balls.
This was his first ODI hundred for 95 innings. His last hundred came in 2010 in tri-nation tournament in Bangladesh, when he made 106 against Sri Lanka in Dhaka.
Dhoni complimented Raina well and scored a quick-fire 52 off just 51 balls. The onslaught helped India post a formidable 304 runs.
England made a solid start with the bat and captain Alastair Cook and Alex Hales got them past the first ten overs without the loss of a wicket. Mohammad Shami dismissed Cook for 19 in the 11th over.
Ian Bell followed three-balls later and the hosts failed to recover from the collapse. England struggled against the extra bounce extracted by Ravindra Jadeja.
The left-arm spinner fooled Jos Buttler into poking a furtive catch into the off side and then accounted for Stokes and Woakes as well. England managed just 161 runs in 38.1 overs, before the rain came and cost them the match.
"The wicket was really good. I thought if I batted until 45th over we could put a target on the board. I've seen a lot of the Test matches, I was looking forward to this game. I've worked really hard on my batting and fitness," Raina said.