England bounced back to form with with a resounding victory over India at Lord's and Richard Mann previews the series decider at Headingley on Tuesday.
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3pts England to post the highest first 15 overs score 10/11
2pts Liam Plunkett top England bowler at 7/2
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After the drubbing England suffered in the series opener at Trent Bridge, Eoin Morgan and his team deserve plenty of credit for the way they responded against a strong India side in London on Saturday.
Having looked so dominant against Australia earlier in the summer, India had seemingly picked holes in a previously faultless England batting line-up while their bowling - particularly from the seamers - had looked pedestrian in face of some flat batting wickets.
However, Joe Root shrugged off speculation surrounding his own place in the limited overs set-up by scoring a faultless hundred while Liam Plunkett and spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali excelled with the ball.
Root's innings was a high-class display. Having struggled against Kuldeep Yadav's mystery wrist-spin so far this summer, he fairly sprinted to the crease with a clear plan of how to tackle India's main weapon and the Yorkshire man was rewarded with a standing ovation from the MCC members upon reaching three figures.
Root seemed intent on reading Yadav off the pitch, using his feet as much as possible as he went deep into his crease to play the ball late once the spin had fully taken effect and was thus easy to read.
When forced to play off the front foot, Root ensured he got a big stride forward and was happy to drop the ball into the covers for quick singles, something he did really well early in his innings.
His acceleration later in the piece ensured England passed the 300 mark and was a stark reminder of his qualities in white-ball cricket and his importance to this England side, particularly against a high-class attack and on wickets that might not always suit the buccaneering style of some of his teammates.
Another factor in England's victory was the fact that Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal aside, India's bowlers were never able to exert any control over proceedings and as a result, the hosts got off to a flier with Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow again looking in good touch.
As has become the norm, England's opening pair raced along at seven an over in the first ten and despite losing a couple of wickets soon after, England still reached 88 at the 15-over stage.
While India's openers - Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan - are seemingly happy to bide their time early on, possibly in the knowledge that they don't bat quite as deep as England, the home batsmen have been keen to take the attack to opposition seamers from ball one.
With India's spinners waiting in the wings, expect England's openers to again go hard in the powerplay overs and as was the case on Saturday, they should be able to outscore India in the first 15 overs with 10/11 appearing very fair.
India's defeat at Lord's highlighted the fact that captain Virat Kohli can't rely on his lower-order batting as much as his opposite number can, so if anything, the likes of himself, Sharma and Dhawan might feel even more pressure to consolidate early in the innings to ensure one, if not two, of those big names are still batting at the back end.
Spinners Ali and Rashid were both seen to better effect in Saturday's win, bowling beautifully in tandem, but Yorkshire paceman Plunkett stood out by claiming 4-46, once again proving his immense value to the England side.
Plunkett has now taken 54 ODI wickets an impressive average of 23.07 since the beginning of 2017 and his Lord's haul was another illustration of his devastating ability.
He was the best of England's quick bowlers in the aforementioned 5-0 defeat of Australia earlier in the year and given that he will be playing on his home ground on Tuesday, one which can often favour the seam bowlers, it is somewhat surprising to see him available at 7/2 to be England's top bowler in Leeds.
Posted at 1430 BST on 16/07/18.
