Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 125 helped India secure their first ODI series victory in England since 2014.
The two sides arrived at Old Trafford tied at 1-1 in the three-match series. Jasprit Bumrah’s 6-19 gave the tourists a Series lead at the Oval, while Reece Topley’s 6-24, stole the show for England at Lord’s.
Old Trafford was the venue for the decider, and it was Rohit Sharma, who won the toss and put England into bat.
And it looked as if it was the right call when Bairstow chipped Mohammed Siraj to Shreyas Iyer at Mid-off for a duck at 12-1
Siraj soon had Joe Root as his second scalp, when he nicked off a beauty to the captain at second slip, 21-2.
Ben Stokes and Jason Roy managed to get England going.
But Hardik Pandya stopped the momentum by removing Roy at 66-3.
He also had England’s Test Captain caught off his own bowling at 74-4.
England’s white-ball captain began to counterattack.
Moeen Ali also joined the party.
Before his attempted lap sweep found the hands of Pant at 149-5.
The Captain soon reached 50.
And Liam Livingstone hit some lusty blows.
But the big-hitting Lancastrian’s innings of 27, came to an end when he went for one too many sixes against Pandya and picked out Ravindra Jadeja at deep square leg, England was in a hole at 198-6.
And things got even worse when the Captain departed for 60, at 199-7.
Craig Overton and David Wily hit some lust blows down the order.
Before their partnership of 48 was ended by Yuzvendra Chahal at 247-8.
The canny leg spinner also had Overton as his second scalp, Virat Kohli making no mistake on the boundary at 257-9.
And he finished off England’s innings by castling Topley through the gate.
So the hosts were all out 259, meaning that the tourists needed 260, to secure a series win in England.
However, their reply did not get the best of starts, as Shikhar Dhawan’s attempted cover drive off Topley, found the hands of Roy at backward point, India 13-1.
India’s Captain got off to a promising start.
Before he nicked Topley off to Root at slip, at 21-2.
And Kohli’s woeful time with the bat continued at 38-3.
And Brydon Carsse gave more joy to England, removing Suryakumar Yadav at 72-4.
England was on top at this point, but then came the Pant and Pandya show.
he England CaptaiEmbed from Getty Images
Their partnership of 133 showed how well they had matured as batsmen and it was beginning to demoralize Buttler’s men.
Pandya brought up his eighth ODI Fifty.
While Pant got his sixth.
The Pant-Pandya onslaught was too much to take for England’s bowlers, however, The left-handed keeper-batsman did get a life when the England Captain failed to stump him on 18.
Carse gave England hope when he had Pandya Brilliantly caught by Stokes for 71.
But Pant’s maiden ODI century, and Jadeja’s cameo of 7, were enough to take India to a Series victory.
Reaction
“Hopefully I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” “But at the same time when I was in, I was not thinking anything, I was just trying to focus on one ball at a time which pays off well for our team.” “But at the same time when I was in, I was not thinking anything, I was just trying to focus on one ball at a time which pays off well for our team.”
Rishabh Pant- Man of the Match: MSN.COM
“White-ball cricket is very close to me and something I cherish. We all know how good a team England are and for us, it was important to come here, step up and show what we have.”
Hardik Pandya- Player of the Series: Sky Sports
‘I’m just learning the art of captaincy and what it looks like to me. My style and how I manage it is going to develop over time with experience. ‘I felt exactly the same as a player. You can’t buy experience and of course you want to accelerate that learning as quickly as you can but you need a bit of time.’
Jos Buttler: Daily Mail
‘Very very pleased, we caame here and wanted to achieve something as a group in white-ball cricket, and i thought we pretty much achieved a fair bit. ‘Obviously moving forward, There are a lot of things we need to improve as a group, but very quite pleeased from the effort from the boys in the end. ‘This is not an easy place to play, but the way we played in the entire white-ball leg was fantastic, and this was something which we were wanting to do for a long period of time, but finally to come and achieve that was a great effort from the entire unit.
Rohit Sharma: Sky Sports
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