MANCHESTER: Rishabh Pant’s maiden ODI and Hardik Pandya’s brilliant all-round performance led India to a 2-1 series win against England after a five-wicket comprehensive win in the final game, here at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Pant shot an astonishing 125 to miss a target of 260 runs set by England in the early innings after India chose to play first.
Pandya excellently combined with Pant for the 133-run fifth wicket partnership to lift his side out of crisis after India stumbled at 72/4 in 17th.
Pandya snapped a brilliant 55-ball 71, tied with ten bounds after he stayed clinical with the bowl and bagged four wickets.
The hero of England’s last match, Reece Topley, continued his blistering form as he tore through the Indian top order, knocking down skipper Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli during his first spell and reducing India to 38/3 in nine overs.
Suryakumar Yadav survived for another seven overs before falling prey to Craig Overton for 16 runs in 17 over.
Pandya and Pant then paired up to take the game out of England’s reach and moved the scoreboard at a fast pace before Brydon Carse finally eliminated Pandya after India got comfortable at 205 requiring only 55 runs on 87 balls.
Pant, however, remained in control and reached his first ODI hundred before taking his team home with 47 balls to spare.
England, on the other hand, got off to a dismal start to their innings when Indian pacemaker Mohammad Siraj brought down Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root in ducks in the second over of the game.
Starter Jason Roy and all-rounder Ben Stokes then set up the innings for a while before both fell prey to Pandya with 41 and 27, respectively.
England were comfortably marching towards a mammoth and had already gone up 198 in 36 overs with five wickets in hand before Pandya took two successive wickets in the next over.
The all-rounder sacked Liam Livingstone and skipper Jos Butler on the 27th and 60th, respectively, to cut the host to 199/7. The collapse helped India defeat England in 46 overs.
For India, in addition to Pandya’s four-wicket haul, Yuzendra Chahal took three wickets while Siraj made two scalps.
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