3rd ODI: Hardik, Pant help India hammer England by 5 wickets, win series 2-1

MANCHESTER: Hardik Pandya's impressive all-round show along with Rishabh Pant's fantastic maiden century in the 50-over cricket helped India thrash England by five wickets in the third and final ODI and win the three-match series 2-1 at Old Trafford, here on Sunday.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya (4/24) and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's (3/60) superb bowling efforts helped India bowl out England for 259 in 45.5 overs.

Skipper Jos Buttler played a vital knock (60 off 80) for England, who were invited to bat first by India captain Rohit Sharma. Apart from Buttler, Jason Roy (41), Moeen Ali (34), and Craig Overton (32) were the other main contributors with the bat for the hosts. Besides Pandya and Chahal, Mohammed Siraj (2/66), and Ravindra Jadeja (1/21) were the other wicket-takers for India.

Chasing a challenging total, India were in deep, deep trouble at 72-4 in 16.2 overs after losing the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan (1), Rohit Sharma (17), Virat Kohli (17), Suryakumar Yadav (16).

But Hardik and Pant batted sensibly, found regular boundaries and stitched a match-winning stand of 133 runs. Pandya (71 off 55) got out in the 36th over of the innings when India needed 55 runs.

However, Pant became even more aggressive and went on to hit his first ODI century. He remained not out (125 off 113) and along with Ravindra Jadeja (7 not out off 15) helped India to a thumping five-wicket victory in 42.1 overs. IANS

Also Read: Indian football is in a very unfortunate situation: Jaydeep Basu

Also Watch: