Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 113-ball 125 combined with Hardik Pandya’s all-round skills as India beat England by five wickets in Manchester to win the ODI series 2-1. This is now the third ODI series defeat for England at home since 2015.
Chasing 260, India was four down for 72 before Hardik and Rishabh Pant added 133 for the fifth wicket to bring the visiting side back into the contest. Both batters struck their respective fifties and were threatening to romp home with plenty to spare before a moment of brilliance from Ben Stokes in the field ended Hardik’s stay. Hardik cue-ended a short ball to a diving Stokes at mid-wicket.
That didn’t deter Pant, who, in the company of Ravindra Jadeja, took the team home. with a 106-ball hundred. He reached the three figure mark with a single before smacking David Willey for five consecutive fours in the 42nd over to bring India on the cusp of a memorable chase. He sealed it with a reverse sweep for four, off Joe Root.
Earlier, England was bowled out for 259 after Pandya picked up four wickets.
With the series tied at 1-1, India won the toss and chose to bowl first, and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj gave the tourist the perfect start, dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Root for ducks in the second over to leave England at 12-2.
Jason Roy (41) and Stokes (27) steadied the ship, but Pandya (4-24) struck in his first over to remove Roy and later dismissed Stokes to put the brakes on.
Moeen Ali combined with Jos Buttler for a 75-run fifth-wicket stand before he, too, was caught behind off Jadeja.
India’s bowlers used the short ball to good effect, and Buttler looked shaken up when he was hit twice on the helmet by two bouncers in one over from Siraj, but the England skipper settled down and looked to push England to a competitive total.
But Pandya struck twice in the 36th over, first dismissing Liam Livingstone (27) before getting rid of Buttler (60), with both batters holing out to Jadeja in the deep as the all-rounder safely pouched two difficult catches near the boundary.
England failed to get going in the death overs, and although Craig Overton chipped in with 32, the visiting side was bowled out as Yuzvendra Chahal (3-60) cleaned up the tail.