England vs India: Rishabh Pant’s first ODI ton and an all round performance by Hardik Pandya saw India beat England in the final ODI to take the series 2-1 at Old Trafford.
Batting first Mohammad Siraj made early inroads into the English batting line up, picking up wickets of Johnny Bairstow and Joe Root for twin ducks in just the second over of the innings.
Jason Roy continued his usual swashbuckling style of batting and Ben Stokes provided able support as England found a foothold.
But Hardik Pandya then removed Roy for 41 in the 10th over and then Stokes just 8 runs later as the hosts were 4 down for 74.
Newly appointed captain Jos Butler then rescued his side with a valuable stand alongside Moeen Ali. With England threatening a fighting score, Ravendra Jadeja dismissed Ali in his first over.
Despite this Butler held on end reaching his half century and with Liam Livingstone pushed England clsoe to 200. But again they lost their way quickly.
Pandya accounted for both Butler and Livingstone in a single over leaving them atLia 199/7.
David Willey and Craig Overturn played useful innings as England managed 259 runs before being all out in the 46th over.
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India got off to a terrible start in their chase with Reece Topley ripping through India’s famed top order. He got wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli inside the first 9 overs leaving visitors at 38/3.
Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav managed to stem the tide but Yadav fell for 16 with the score 72.
Pandya who haunted England with the ball in the first innings now returned to do the same with the bat.
England were left to rue a missed stumping opportunity when Pant was batting on 18
In a surprise, Pandya took the counter attacking approach with Pant remaining solid at the other end.
Pandya played a brilliant counter attacking innings even taking on Topley and when Pant reached his 50 he too joined in the assault.
The two batters looked at ease and played wonderful attacking cricket to snuff out any chance of an English win.
The hosts finally managed a late breakthrough when Pandya was dismissed but his 71 off 55 balls had done the damage with India needed just another 55 runs.
Pant then took centerstage and smashed Willey for 5 consecutive boundaries in what was becoming a procession. In due time he brought up his maiden ODI century and further underlined his credentials as one of the dangerous batters in the world across any format of the game.
India who lost the one-off Test will be delighted to win a white ball series especially after losing out here the last time.
Brief scores: England vs India
England 259 in 45.5 overs (Jos Buttler 60, Jason Roy 41; Hardik Pandya 4/24, Yuzvendra Chahal 3/60) India 261/5 in 42.1 overs (Rishabh Pant 125*, Hardik Pandya 71; Reece Topley 3/35)
