Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes fired England to a stunning ODI victory in Pune, to set up a crunch series decider on Sunday.
Bairstow’s knock of 124 saw the tourists comfortably chase down a seemingly mammoth target of 337 after KL Rahul’s knock of 108.
England won the toss and, as they like to do in limited-overs cricket, elected to bowl first.
In the England camp, three changes were made, two of which were enforced ones.
Captain Eoin Morgan was ruled out for the remainder of the series, and was replaced by Dawid Malan, with Jos Buttler leading the side out.
Sam Billings was also sidelined, making way for debutant Liam Livingstone, and Mark Wood was rested in place for Reece Topley.
India meanwhile made just the one change with Rishabh Pant replacing Shreyas Iyer who picked up a serious injury and is expected to miss the entirety of the Indian Premier League.
India’s innings gets off to a slow start
England’s bowlers got off to a composed start and Topley marked a superb return to the ODI side as he picked up the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, who edged to Stokes in the slips.
Sam Curran continued the good start for the tourists as he forced Rohit Sharma into a drive and in doing so could only pick out Adil Rashid at mid-on.
With the hosts teetering at 37-2, Rahul and Virat Kohli needed to get stuck in and up the run rate.
The pair did just that and soon both passed their half-centuries to put India back in control at 144-2 from 30.2 overs.
England finally found a much-needed breakthrough as Kohli fell to Rashid, nicking one straight through to Buttler.
Tom Curran thought he had Pant twice in as many balls, with both initially being given out by the umpire.
Both decisions were instantly reviewed by Pant with the first, after being given lbw, overturned after the wicketkeeper was shown to have hit the ball first.
The second decision saw Pant given out caught behind only for DRS to show the ball deflecting off the helmet.
In the midst of this DRS drama, Rahul was on the cusp of a century and brought it up off of 108 balls to move India to 258-3 with just under seven overs remaining.
Rahul eventually departed for 108 after picking out Topley.
Pant then fell for 77 after smashing one straight down the throat of Jason Roy, claiming another wicket for his Surrey team-mate.
Hardik Pandya departed with the penultimate ball of the innings with Roy providing another catch for another one of his Surrey team mates, this time in Topley.
India’s innings came to a close with a very competitive score of 336-6.
England have a high score to chase
England’s openers got off to the perfect start they needed and Roy reached his half-century after 48 deliveries.
The partnership soon went past 100 after just 15.4 overs, putting England in a very strong position to give them the chance to chase down India’s high total.
However, some poor communication between Bairstow and Roy saw the latter run out for 55.
Ben Stokes then arrived at the crease and, after a solid start, was almost maid to pay for some lethargic running.
After a lengthy umpires’ call decision and many different angles, the umpires gave Stokes the benefit of the doubt and the decision was not out.
Bairstow then reached a blistering 100 off of 95 deliveries, bringing it up in style with a six.
With that six it also took England to 200-1 and looking in firm control to chase India’s target down.
It looked as if Stokes would join his partner with a century but suffered agony right at the end as he was out on 99, after nicking a delivery through to Pant.
Bairstow’s game winning knock came to an end on 124 as he could only pick out Kohli.
Despite the loss of Buttler soon after for a three-ball duck, England were still in cruise control at 287-4 with only 50 required at 36.4 overs.
England soon blitzed their way to victory, securing a six-wicket win inside 43.2 overs.
It could have been done even quicker if it was not for the loss of Buttler in the middle over, but England will have few complaints after a superb performance.
England secured their record run chase over India, leaving it with all to play for in the series decider on Sunday.
The final ODI of the series, and final match of England’s tour of India begins on Sunday at 9am, live on Sky Sports Cricket.
By Josh Mann
