Ravi Bopara made a comeback in ODI cricket for England yesterday by playing in the third one day international match against New Zealand at Nottingham.
Bopara had been out of the England team since quite a while, but, he played some good innings for his county Essex in the ongoing season and because of that, the selectors called him back in the ODI team for the series against the Kiwis and also for the Champions Trophy.
In the first two ODIs, Bopara didn’t find a place in the playing XI, but, he finally got a game yesterday and he made useful contributions both with the bat and the ball.
He came to bat when England was in a spot of bother. The Poms had just lost the wickets of Ian Bell and Joe Root and needed somebody to steady the innings. Bopara did that job wonderfully.
He took no risks at all for the next 10 overs or so. He just relied on singles and twos and with a 50-run stand with Eoin Morgan, he took England past 200.
Bopara was dismissed in the 46th over after scoring 28 runs off 38 balls, but, before that, he had set a good platform for Jos Buttler.
Buttler capitalized on that platform and played a dashing inning of 47 to take the Poms past 280.
Later on, Bopara contributed with the ball as well. He bowled quite economically. Alastair Cook brought him into the attack in the 28th over as the 6th bowler.
Bopara’s first spell was of 2 overs in which he gave away 7 runs. Then, his end was changed. From the other end, he just bowled one over and was taken off again. He gave away 3 runs in that over
Bopara was brought for his third spell in the 42nd over and he bowled 3 overs in that spell. He went for 11 runs in those 3 overs.
It was overall quite a decent all round performance by Bopara and he might get a go in England’s first match in the Champions Trophy against the Aussies.