India overcame a painstaking defeat in the second one-dayer and bounced back from a position of strife during the decider on July 17 to achieve an exceptional 2-1 ODI series win over England. The visitors emerged victorious by five wickets in Manchester, heading back home with their first series win in the format in the UK after eight years.
And that won’t have been possible without their star performers and game-changers, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant, who were simply outstanding. Pandya had a perfect allround game, while Pant smashed what will go down as one of the great hundreds made in the 50-overs game in recent times.
Chasing a score of 260 on an Old Trafford surface, making it difficult for batters to ride the bounce and pace against the quicks, India suffered another top-order collapse to be reduced to 21 for two, which soon became 72 for four.
It was in this strife that Pandya joined Pant at the crease, and the duo shared a match-transforming stand of 133 runs for the fifth wicket. It was Pandya who began the counterattack with the bat in hand, playing one of his better one-day innings. He smashed 71 off 55 deliveries, featuring ten fours and kept Pant calm and sedate at the other end.
That helped with the explosive wicketkeeper-batter’s decision-making at the crease as he reached a watchful half-century, taking more time than usual to reach the mini milestone. It is only when they began to regain control of things that both the players went after the bowling, with Pant perhaps feeling inspired by the assault from Pandya at the other end.
Sensing the pressure has shifted, Pant kept the accelerator mode on from there even as Pandya lost his wicket going for a pull shot. With Ravindra Jadeja for the company at No.7 and a weak tail to follow, Pant took the onus upon himself to close out the game. What he did thereafter was the stuff of great memories as he dispatched England fast-bowlers for a flurry of scintillating boundaries and stood there proudly at the point of hitting the winning run.
England once again depended heavily on left-arm pacer Reece Topley (3/35) for his new-ball exploits, and they did manage to build inroads into the Indian innings. But they lacked the back-up acts of similar quality, going on to lose the match and the series to two exceptional knocks in the opposition camp.
With the bat, too, England stuttered along and would’ve folded for much less than 259 all out had it not been for contributions from skipper Joe Buttler (60), opener Jason Roy (41) and middle-order duo of Moeen Ali (34) and Liam Livingstone (27).
But the Three Lions would be ruing the fact that none of them carried on to play a more substantial knock that may have taken them to a more competitive score. They failed to bat more than four overs of their allotted 50-over quota, which would be another reason to beat themselves up.
But to deny Indians the credit for it would be incorrect. Pandya was the stand-out performer with the ball and finished with stellar figures of four for 24. He was tremendous with his use of the short ball and got England batters to play aerial and into the hands of India’s boundary riders. For backing his bowling exploits with an outstanding knock in the run-chase and being a consistent performer throughout the tour, Pandya was rightfully awarded the ‘Player of the Series’.
Brief scores
England 259/10 in 45.5 overs (Buttler 60, Roy 41; Pandya 4/24) lost to India 261/5 in 42.1 overs (Pant 125*, Pandya 71; Topley 3/35) by 5 wickets
