Adil Rashid Hails His 'Most Satisfying Ball' to Dismiss Virat Kohli
Adil Rashid bowled a delivery that left India's superstar captain Virat Kohli speechless and turned a significant one-day series decisively in England's favor.
A perfect day for England began with Rashid bowling the new 'ball of the century' to dismiss Virat Kohli and ended with Joe Root making a record-breaking 13th one-day hundred to take his side home in style.
It gave England their seventh one-day win in nine matches this summer and their eight successive bi-lateral 50-over series win. Their only real setback, bizarrely, came with defeat by Scotland in Edinburgh.
And Root marked the moment of triumph when he reached his second successive unbeaten hundred by hitting a boundary with just one needed to overcome India's below par 258 for six with 'a mic drop' celebration.
If Root was saying that England had made a statement in coming back from one down in this Royal London series to beat India 2-1 then it was certainly a significant one, not least Rashid's 'ball of the century' to bowl Kohli.
'It was definitely the most satisfying ball I've bowled because he is one of the best players in the world,' said Rashid of a leg-break that pitched on Kohli's leg-stump and hit the top of off, to the India captain's astonishment.
'It's the sort of ball you wish you could bowl all the time but on this occasion it just came out very nicely.'
England captain Eoin Morgan was delighted with the return to form of Root, who had gone eight white-ball matches without a half century before he reached three figures at Lord's and now again here, taming India's mystery spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the process.
'It's extremely encouraging for Joe,' said Morgan. 'The composure he's shown in the last two games is the Joe Root we know and trust. He's been the same guy around the group hungry for runs and I'm sure that will continue.
But Morgan light-heartedly admonished Root for his 'mic drop.'
'I didn't know he was going to do that. I was still talking to the ball to make sure it went over the line. A statement? No he made a fool of himself! Smiled Morgan.
The England captain declared himself satisfied with a job well done in England's most important one-day series ahead of a World Cup they are expected to win.
'We started poorly but as the series has gone on we've improved. It has been brilliant since Trent Bridge and I thought today was clinical.
'India never got away from us. We need to be better from the start rather than making big mistakes and improving on them as we go along.'
India are expected to pick the left-arm wrist spin of Kuldeep in their squad for the five-Test series even though England have improved their performances against him significantly since he took six wickets in the first one-day international at Trent Bridge.
But there could be no place for Rohit Sharma. - Daily Mail Online
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