Hummingbird News Desk
PUNE, 28 MARCH: After winning test series and T20 series, India beat England by 7 runs in 3rd ODI to win series 2-1. Chasing 330 runs to win, England could only muster 322 for the loss of 9 wickets. For England, Sam Curran scored 95 not out (83 balls) and Dawid Malan made 50 (50 balls).
Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 3 wickets, while Shardul Thakur took 4 wickets. Batting first, India posted a competitive total with half-centuries from Dhawan (67), Pant (78) and Hardik (64).
Dhawan scored 67 off 56 balls with 10 boundaries in India’s total of 329 after England won the toss and elected to bowl first.
“I was always in the groove. Once I got the chance, I made the most of it. It’s a good feeling to bat like this, I really enjoyed it.
“I was playing domestic cricket, I was preparing for it and that was the best match practice I could get coming into this series. The wicket was good for the last two matches and it stayed true today as well. I enjoy playing on bouncy tracks,” Dhawan said in the post-match interview.
India rode on half-centuries from Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (78) and Hardik Pandya (64) to post 329 on the board. Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar then bagged 7 wickets between themselves to restrict England to 322 for 9 in 50 overs.
Sam Curran waged a lone battle in the end but it was not enough as India restricted England to 322 in 50 overs. The all-rounder hit his maiden ODI fifty and took the game deep. Curran finished with 95 not out as England fell agonisingly short of the total by 7 runs.
Despite not playing a specialist spinner and their rookie pacers T Natarajan and Prasidh Krishna going for runs, Bhuvneshwar and Shardul stepped up and delivered in the crunch tie.
India won the 3 match ODI series 2-1, T20I series 3-2 and Test series 3-1 against England.
Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, says that when the top two teams battle each other, it usually provides games like these. He said that Curran played really well but their bowlers kept taking wickets at regular intervals in the second innings. Natarajan and Hardik were brilliant to finish it off in the end. It is disappointing the most for the guys who drop the catches, he stated.
He also said that sometimes the dropped catches cost you and sometimes, they don’t. The important thing is crossing the line in the end.
He was surprised that Shardul Thakur was not the Man of the Match and Bhuvneshwar and Shardul made the difference in this series. Goes onto say Prasidh was impressive and Krunal was good in the first game.
He was pleased to see the depth of their batting. Tells that it has been an amazing season for them and they take away a lot from this season and they go into the Indian T20 league with a lot of experience.