Yuvraj Singh was named the man of the match.
Limited overs stalwarts Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni rolled back the years to smash scintillating centuries to help India secure a series-clinching 15-run victory in the second one-day international against England on Thursday.
England captain Eoin Morgan blasted a blistering 102 but could not take his team over the line as India prevailed in the thrilling run-fest to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Put into bat, India were reeling at 25 for three at Cuttack's Barabati Stadium when Yuvraj and Dhoni, with the experience of 580 one-dayers between them, staged a spectacular recovery with an epic 256-run partnership spread over 38-odd overs.
The early dismissals of the openers or the rare failure of home captain Virat Kohli mattered little as Yuvraj and Dhoni exhibited the kind of shot-making which comes naturally to them.
Left-handed Yuvraj, one of the cleanest strikers of the ball, hammered a career-best 150 off 127 balls, a sizzling knock studded with 21 boundaries and three sixes. Dhoni, who relinquished limited-overs captaincy earlier this month, made 134 off 122 balls, his 10th one-day century. His innings contained six sixes, including three in a Liam Plunkett over.
Paceman Chris Woakes emerged from the batting carnage with his reputation intact, having claimed four wickets as India posted a commanding 381-6. In reply, England lost Alex Hales cheaply but Joe Root (54) and Jason Roy steadied the innings with a century stand.
India's spin spearhead Ravichandran Ashwin (3-65) struck in his first over, dismissing Root, and England lost three more wickets, including that of Roy who made a brisk 82, to slump to 206-5. Morgan raised 93 runs with Moeen Ali (55) to keep England in the chase and went on to complete his ninth ODI century, which contained five sixes, to inject fresh excitement into the contest.
Unfortunately for the tourists, Morgan was run out in the penultimate over and Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent down a tidy final over to restrict England to 366-8. Kolkata hosts the third and final one-dayer on Sunday.
All sorts of records tumble
The total is India's second highest against England behind their 387/5 in Rajkot in 2008. It was also a record score at the venue, bettering 363/5 against Sri Lanka in 2014 as the packed 43,000-capacity crowd were made to forget the disappointment of seeing India all out for 79 in the T20 International on October 5.
Dhoni and Yuvraj added 256 off 230 balls, the second highest for the fourth wicket behind Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja's 275 against Zimbabwe, incidentally at the same venue in April 1998.
It was also their first double hundred partnership and 10th century-plus partnership eclipsing 158 against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2005.
Yuvraj launched Liam Plunkett over extra cover boundary to move to the 'nervous' 99 before calmly tucking a short ball to square leg to bring up the magical three-figure mark. Cuttack crowd could not have asked for a better innings as a standing ovation followed with the old warrior slowly trudging forward, raising his arms and looking up in the air and thumping his chests. His 14th ODI hundred was his first since March 20, 2011 when he had slammed 113 against the West Indies in their victorious World Cup campaign; it was also his fourth ton versus England and seventh at home.
Yuvraj initially survived an anxious phase with his edges flying around. Having surpassed his previous best, 139, Yuvraj also lived on to complete his 150 after a DRS referral went in his favour. On 149, Yuvraj was given out caught behind by umpire Anil Choudhary but he took a referral that showed the ball had bounced before Jos Buttler had taken the catch. The Indian duo toyed the English attack left, right and centre -- and Dhoni also managed to disturb the spidercam before completing his century with a single to Woakes.
Yuvraj's epic innings finally came to an end the next ball when he edged Woakes behind the stumps. It was a remarkable recovery staged by the two veterans as they saw off a wobbly first 30 minutes when India lost Lokesh Rahul (five), the man-in-form Virat Kohli (eight) and Shikhar Dhawan (11) inside five overs.
On a good batting wicket, Woakes reduced India to 25/3 in 4.4 overs. He squared up Rahul before inducing an edge at the second slip in the first ball of his second over, while in the last ball of the same over he dismissed Kohli at the same position with Ben Stokes taking a diving catch.
Then in his next over the English pacer brilliantly set up Shikhar Dhawan with two short balls followed by a full delivery way outside the offstump of the Southpaw who could only manage to drag it on to the stumps, handing Woakes an ominous first spell of 5-3-14-3.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar England: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Jos Buttler , Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Liam Plunkett, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Jake Ball.
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