Pant-Pandya powers India to the famous series victory against England

Rishabh Pant displayed something special at Old Trafford as he smashed his maiden ODI ton to clinch the ODI series for his team The stage was set in Manchester for the series decider after both teams won one each in the 3-match series. India suffered a massive blow as their strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the match due to back spasms. Mohammad Siraj was included as the replacement for India’s leading wicket-taker in the series. There was no change in England’s playing XI as they came out with their winning combination from the last match. India opted to bowl first after winning the toss for the 3rd time in the series.

The hosts straight away suffered two quick blows in just the 2nd over of the match as Siraj dismissed both Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root for 0 in the same over. Stokes and Roy kept the runs going at a high rate and put up a quick 54-run stand for the 3rd wicket before they both were undone by Hardik Pandya. England were struggling at 74-4 in the 14th over before Moeen Ali came out to join skipper Jos Buttler. They both added 75 crucial runs for the 5th wicket and took the team total close to 150 just before Moeen’s dismissal.

Buttler then added 49 runs with Livingstone for the 6th wicket and reached 22nd half-century of his ODI career before falling prey to Pandya. The last three wickets of England added 60 important runs with the vital contributions from Craig Overton (32) and David Willey (18) before they were all-out for 259 runs in their 45.5 overs. The all-rounder Hardik Pandya was the hero with the ball as he bowled 3 maidens out of 7 overs and took 4 wickets for just 24 runs. He was well supported by Yuzvendra Chahal who took 3 wickets. Siraj found 2 and Jadeja found a single scalp with the ball.

Chasing the target, India lost the opener, Shikhar Dhawan, early for 1 run in just the 3rd over of their inning. Reece Topley once again rattled through the Indian top order as he dismissed the trio of Rohit, Dhawan, and Virat cheaply and put the visitors on the backfoot. Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant then tried to recover from the poor start to keep the chase alive before Yadav’s dismissal in the 17th over. Pant then was joined by Hardik as they both produced a partnership to remember for a long long time.

Both the batters scored half-centuries and put up a magnificent 133-stand for the 5th wicket and took the team total past 200 before the latter was dismissed by Brydon Carse in the 36th over. There was an all-Pant special show for the rest of the inning as he went on to score his maiden ODI century. Pant and Jadeja assured a 5-wicket victory as India clinched the ODI series (2-1) with the same scoreline as the T2OIs.

Rishabh Pant for his unbeaten 125 runs was adjudged as player of the match and Hardik Pandya for his all-around brilliance as player of the series as he scored 100 runs and took 6 wickets in the 3-match series. The tour ended on a successful note for the men in blue as they won all white leg (both T20I and ODI series) after suffering a defeat in the 5th rescheduled test at Edgbaston.