Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow fire up in big-hitting win for England in 2nd ODI
England's grip on global white ball dominance remains secure thanks to an evening of brutal batting from a big-hitting quartet.
Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes led the way as England romped to a six wicket win by overhauling India's seemingly imposing 336-6 with 39 balls to spare.
But behind them, Jason Roy and Liam Livingstone, on his one day debut, showed that even without skipper Eoin Morgan, the six-hitting party never stops.
An whopping 20 sixes were hit between the four of them as the rest of the world were put on notice, as if they needed it, that no total is safe once this England juggernaut gets moving.
It was absolute carnage as Bairstow reached his 11 th ODI hundred from 95 balls before falling for 124, while Stokes' was denied his ton by the barest of margins. His 99 coming from just 52 balls.
"We always go out and play as positively as we can," said Stokes. "It is great that we were able to go out and express ourselves in the way we wanted to.
"We didn't go away from our values as a team even though we were bitterly disappointed with the chase in the first game. It was a great chase and we're really happy we managed to get over the line quite easily.
"The amount of runs the openers have scored is unbelievable but it is the way they score it that makes the difference, they are the most destructive pair in the world in my opinion.
Stokes batted like a man who didn't have a care in the world, or at least whose only care was to see how many sixes he could hit before bedtime.
And he did a pretty good job of it moving from 50 to 99 in just 12 balls in a sequence that read 6 6 6 1 6 4 2 6 6 2 4 W.
He has done this several times before, most brutally against South Africa when charging to his career best 258 in a Test match.
This was just the same as he swung hard and harder and connected with a ball that flew further and further into the stands.
Across two overs from spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya, Stokes deposited both men for a trio of sixes each as part of the ten maximums he hit.
It could have been all so different had the TV umpire had a different view of a potential run out of Stokes when he had made just 31.
Jogging back for a second run he was a little slow on grounding his bat and when Kuldeep Yadav's throw took off the bails, there didn't seem to be anything behind the line.
The verdict went with Stokes and he took full advantage to make a mockery of the idea that England would have lost their World No.1 ranking had they been beaten.
Spare a thought for KL Rahul, who earlier made a classy 108 to set the game up perfectly for India's big-hitters Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya to cash in.
They took England's bowlers for 126 from the last 10 overs thanks to some powerful hitting of their own, it just turned out to be too little too late.
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