Rohit Sharma walked off Lord’s with 138 runs next to his name, a historic innings in every sense of the word, and India still lost. England beat the world’s top-ranked ODI side by 27 runs at Lord’s on July 19 to claim a 2-1 series victory, their first against India since 2018. The margin tells you almost nothing about how close this match actually was.
England come out on top of an absolute run-fest at Lord’s to clinch the ODI series against India! 👏💥 pic.twitter.com/FLABK3eLm1
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 19, 2026
Ben Duckett’s 141 off 135 balls gave England a record 387 for 3. Rohit answered with 138 off 110. In another match, on another day, both innings would have won. That they occurred in the same game at Lord’s makes this one of the great modern ODI contests.
England’s Innings: The Target That Changed the Match
Harry Brook won the toss and chose to bat, with India already missing Jasprit Bumrah, who failed a fitness test before the game. England made them pay immediately.
Duckett and Jacob Bethell built a 192-run opening stand, England’s highest partnership for any wicket against India in ODI cricket. Bethell scored 91 off 93 before being caught at cow corner off Prasidh Krishna, nine runs short of a century on the day Lord’s wore black armbands for Sir Garfield Sobers, who had passed away earlier that week.
Nailed to the boundary!
A superb hundred for Ben Duckett at Lord’s 💯
🤝 @IGcom pic.twitter.com/NwS3IH5tMJ
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 19, 2026
Duckett kicked on after reaching his century, blasting 18 fours and a six to surpass Viv Richards’ 138 not out against England at this ground in 1979. His 141 is now the highest individual score in an ODI at Lord’s. He was eventually caught and bowled by Prince Yadav.
Joe Root then hit a sixth consecutive ODI half-century before Jos Buttler produced a late assault that only a wicketkeeper-batsman playing without fear can manage. Buttler struck four fours and three sixes in just 13 balls. England plundered 82 runs from the final five overs to finish at 387 for 3, the highest total ever posted in a List A or ODI match at Lord’s, surpassing their own 334 for 4 from the opening day of the 1975 World Cup.
India needed to pull off the second-highest run chase in ODI history to win the series.
India’s Chase: How Close They Actually Came
Rohit Sharma became the first Indian man to score an ODI century at Lord’s. He reached his 34th hundred in 84 balls, struck 11 fours and four sixes, and finished with 138 off 110 deliveries. It was his eighth international century on English soil across formats, more than any visiting cricketer has ever managed in a single country. In hitting a six off Sam Curran in the 11th over, he also broke Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in international cricket against SENA nations.
He did all of this in a 388 chase in a series decider, with retirement speculation following him across every ground he played at this summer.
Rohit and Shubman Gill put on 147 for the opening wicket. Gill scored a fluent 77 off 84 but suffered a recurrence of the cramps that had troubled him at Edgbaston in the first ODI, and eventually fell lbw to Adil Rashid, the spinner’s first wicket of the series. Rohit then partnered with Virat Kohli for 113 runs in what was their 21st century stand in ODI cricket, a milestone only one pair in the history of the format has surpassed.
⚡️THE RO-KO SHOW⚡️
This is the 21st century partnership between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in ODI cricket.
Only one pair in this format has more. pic.twitter.com/S07mCssNGR
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) July 19, 2026
Kohli posted his first fifty at Lord’s in any format. By the time Jacob Bethell bowled Rohit, India had built a position that still felt entirely winnable. Lord’s gave Rohit a standing ovation as he walked off. When the noise settled, India still needed 121 runs from the final 10 overs. It is worth noting that the highest target ever chased between overs 41 and 50 in ODI history is 109 runs.
A standing ovation at Lord’s for Rohit Sharma as he departs for 138 (110).
India need 121 to win from the final 10 overs.
Worth noting that the highest target successfully chased between overs 41 & 50 in an ODI is 109 runs. pic.twitter.com/4IEUDfa10G
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) July 19, 2026
Kohli kept going. Ishan Kishan joined him. India reached 303 for 2, needing 84 from the final 39 balls. The required rate had barely shifted since Rohit’s departure. The game was still alive.
Insider Read:
What happened in the next seven deliveries from Sam Curran is where the match was truly decided. But before getting to that moment, the bigger picture needs to be said.
This was the best ODI I have seen in a long time, and I say that regardless of which team won. England scored 387. India scored 360 in a losing chase. A score of 360 against most teams in ODI cricket wins you the match when you bat first. Both sides played out of their skin for the full 100 overs and the final margin was 27 runs. That is what this game looked like from the inside two teams arriving at the same ground with everything they had, and producing cricket at the very highest level because of each other. You do not often see this.
At 303 for 2, needing 84 off 39 balls with Kohli set and Kishan alongside him, India were still in this. Any professional cricketer in that dressing room would have believed it was gettable. Six wickets. Thirty-nine balls. A set batter at the crease. You chase that.
And then Curran bowled that seven-ball burst. Left-arm seam at the death, coming around the wicket into right-handed batsmen who are trying to attack, creates a problem that pace alone cannot replicate. The ball angles in and then skids through. Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, and Kohli all fell in rapid succession, not because they batted badly, but because Curran bowled exactly what the moment demanded. India were 303 for 2 and then they were 303 for 5, and the game was gone in the time it takes to bowl seven balls.
The quality of the contest does not diminish because of that spell. It is what made this match worth remembering..
Post Match Press Conference
“I am extremely proud. We fought hard, communicated well like we did in the T20s and have managed to scrape a series win against the world No 1 team. We want to set a template with the bat and the way Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell started with the bat was phenomenal. To be no wickets down after 30 overs and not look like they were taking a risk.”
Harry Brook, England captain, post-match press conference, Lord’s, July 19, 2026
Shubman Gill, captaining India in what may have been Rohit Sharma’s final international appearance, was precise about where the game slipped away:
“I think we were right in the game up until the 45th over [of England’s innings]. We gave up too many runs in the last three overs and that’s where the game went too far out from us. We thought if we had wickets in hand after 40 overs, we would be in the game. After the powerplay, we tried to get the required run rate down.”
Shubman Gill, India captain, post-match, Lord’s, July 19, 2026
Joe Root, named Player of the Series with 249 runs across three games without being dismissed once, offered the clearest picture of where England are as an ODI side:
“To bounce back from our defeat in the first ODI and beat the No 1 side is the most rewarding thing. To back up a brilliant series win in Sri Lanka with this shows we are going in the right direction in a really positive way. It is great to see the guys developing and learning.”
Joe Root, Player of the Series, post-match, Lord’s, July 19, 2026
The Bigger Picture
England’s 2-1 ODI series win is only their second over India since 2012, secured by a side that had already completed a 4-0 T20 series whitewash on the same tour. Both came against the world’s top-ranked side.
For India, the BCCI had publicly insisted Rohit Sharma had a future beyond this match. Whether that holds or not, Rohit gave himself every reason to walk away on his own terms. He scored 138 at Lord’s. He broke records that had stood for decades. He kept India in a game that most sides would have conceded long before the final over.
He did not get a winner’s medal. But he played cricket that will be remembered long after the result has faded.
Sources
Match report, July 19, 2026 Sky Sports
