India beat England by five wickets in the third one-day international at Emirates Old Trafford to clinch a 2-1 series win; Rishabh Pant hits maiden ODI century as India chase down 260 with 47 balls to spare; Hardik Pandya takes career-best 4-24 and thumps 71 from 55 balls
Monday 18 July 2022 06:13, UK
Rishabh Pant’s superb unbeaten 125 and a brilliant all-round display from Hardik Pandya led India to a five-wicket win over England in the third one-day international and a 2-1 series win.
Backed by the majority of a raucous crowd at Emirates Old Trafford, India bowled England out for 259 in 45.5 overs with Hardik taking a career-best 4-24 before thumping 71 from 55 balls in a 133-run stand with Pant as India raced to victory.
Reece Topley (3-35) had given England hope with a three-wicket burst in an excellent opening spell after Jos Buttler's (60) first half-century since succeeding Eoin Morgan as skipper had helped take England out of early trouble with the bat.
However, the brilliance of Pant (125no from 113) and Hardik saw India overcome early problems of their own to secure victory with 47 balls to spare.
For much of the innings, Pant was fairly reserved by his standards but he made sure he finished the job in style, smashing five fours in a row off David Willey before signing off with a reverse-sweep off Joe Root for another boundary.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Rohit Sharma revealed that Jasprit Bumrah had been ruled out due to a back spasm.
What seemed a significant blow to the visitors was quickly forgotten as his replacement, Mohammad Siraj (2-66) struck twice in the second over to send Jonny Bairstow (0) and Root (0) packing without troubling the scorers.
England responded in their typical manner, going on the attack with Jason Roy - having hit three boundaries in the first over - and Ben Stokes determined to impose themselves on the India bowlers.
They succeeded for a time, too, putting on 54 in good time before Roy (41 from 31 balls) top-edged a pull shot off Hardik and sent the ball straight up, with Pant taking a simple catch behind.
Stokes (27) fell to another Hardik bumper, getting cramped for room as he advanced and this time the skied top-edge was taken by the bowler.
From 74-4, England had to regroup again, and this time did so the old-fashioned way with Buttler and Moeen Ali made to dig in by some excellent and aggressive India bowling that saw the home skipper's helmet rattled twice in an over by Siraj.
Buttler broke the shackles with a pair of sixes off Chahal while Moeen hit two sweet drives for four and then pulled for six in an 18-run Siraj over before taking Chahal for another maximum.
However, just as England seemed to have re-established themselves in the innings, Ravindra Jadeja (1-21) came on and broke the 75-run stand.
Moeen (34) was on the sweep but could only glove it and Pant, having anticipated the shot, was there to take a smart catch down the legside.
Buttler progressed to his 22nd ODI fifty from an uncharacteristically sedate 65 balls - but a crucial knock in the circumstances - during another promising partnership with Liam Livingstone.
The Lancashire all-rounder nailed Hardik for a pair of brutal sixes in the midst of an entertaining battle but it was the India bowler who won out as Livingstone (27) went again and was superbly caught on the rope by Jadeja.
Three balls later and Hardik and Jadeja were combining again to give India the prize scalp of Buttler. Another short ball, another pull shot and this time an even better catch as Jadeja sprinted around from deep square leg to gobble up the chance.
David Willey (18) and Craig Overton (32) performed the next rescue mission for the hosts from 199-7, putting on 48 for the eighth wicket before each holing out off Yuzvandra Chahal, who then bowled Topley with a beautiful googly to wrap up the innings.
A chase of 260 was comfortably within India's reach but so was the 247 England set them at Lord's and that ended in a 100-run win for the home side.
Reece Topley as the chief destroyer in that match and the left-arm quick was at it again in Manchester as he accounted for Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit and Virat Kohli inside the first nine overs to leave India reeling at 38-3.
Dhawan (1) was the first to go, slicing to backward point before Rohit (17) edged to Joe Root at slip and a similar prod outside off stump did for Kohli (17) as he feathered through to Buttler.
Pant and Suryakumar Yadav steadied things for a short time but the former needed a stroke of luck to survive on 18 as he charged past a sharp turning delivery from Mooen, only for the ball to beat Buttler as well as the stumping chance went begging.
There was no such luck for Suryakumar in the next over, though, as Overton extracted a little extra bounce out of the surface to find the edge and this time Buttler snapped up the chance.
That brought Hardik to the crease and he, too, needed a helping hand early on and was given it by a misjudgement in the deep.
A short ball from Brydon Carse rushed him but Overton had come in too far at fine leg and the ball looped just over his head, bouncing once before crossing the boundary.
The partnership built through the middle overs and after a relatively slow start, punctuated by the odd, classy drive from Hardik, with Pant showing his more restrained, responsible side, the dot balls gradually dried up and the boundaries started to flow.
Hardik raced to his half-century from 43 balls and a lovely, lofted drive from Pant took him to fifty from 71 balls soon after, and the latter was accelerating.
England had no answer with anything fractionally short cut and pulled with disdain and anything full routinely smoked through the covers.
India had passed 200 by the time the next chance arrived, Hardik finally miscuing a pull shot off Carse and Stokes dived forward from midwicket to take a brilliant catch.
It was all too little, too late for England, though, as Pant went into overdrive. He muscled Willey into the Party Stand to move into the 90s and having just managed to chip an Overton delivery over Willey at midwicket with a miscue on 97, he brought up a 106-ball ton from the next delivery.
Perhaps spurred on by the huge ovation from the Manchester crowd, Pant needed just seven more balls to finish the job.
Willey was again on the receiving end as the first five balls of the over flew to the boundary before the 24-year-old left-hander nudged the last for a single to keep strike.
Root was brought on to spare the frontline bowlers any unnecessary punishment and Pant promptly reverse-swept the part-time off-spinner to seal the win with his 16th boundary.
India's triumph in the 50-over series follows their success in the T20s, both coming by the same 2-1 scoreline.
Player of the match, India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant: "Hopefully I will remember this for the rest of my life but when I was in I was not thinking about anything. I was just trying to focus on one ball at a time. You always aspire to play like this when your team is in trouble. The more experience you get the more you improve."
Former India player and coach Ravi Shastri on Pant: "He is great for the world game - he has flair and the ability to entertain people in all formats. It was a special hundred as India were down and out at one stage but this guy is a special player."
Player of the series, India all-rounder Hardik Pandya: "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."
It is a quick turnaround for Jos Buttler's side, they are back in action on Tuesday to play the first of three ODIs against South Africa in Durham. Coverage starts at 12.30pm on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event, with play scheduled to begin at 1pm.
Meanwhile, England's women's side are also taking on South Africa. They are 6-2 up in the multi-format series going into Monday's third ODI at Leicester. Watch from 1.30pm on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event with the start of play half an hour later.
