India secured a 2-1 ODI series win over England after a thrilling finale in Pune.
Sam Curran’s incredible innings of 95 not out came in vain as the hosts secured a narrow seven-run victory.
Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant starred with the bat for India, with scores of 67 and 78 respectively.
England once again won the toss, and as expected put India into bat first.
England made just the one change from their comprehensive victory on Friday, with Mark Wood replacing Tom Curran.
India also made one change with T. Natarajan coming in for Kuldeep Yadav.
Home team off to a flying start
The home team started very strong, getting themselves to 65-0 from 10 overs and the end of the powerplay.
Dhawan then reached his half century off of 44 deliveries, continuing his goof form in the ODIs.
India then got to 100-0 from just 14 overs before an lbw shout from Adil Rashid to Dhawan was sent upstairs by England, only for it to be pitching outside leg stump.
They would find the breakthrough later on in the over as a beautiful delivery from Rashid castled Rohit Sharma’s stumps.
England made another breakthrough soon after as Dhawan chipped Rashid’s delivery straight back to him to give the Yorkshire leg spinner his second wicket.
The tourists started what proved to be a stunning fightback as Moeen Ali then picked up the massive wicket of Virat Kohli for just seven runs and see India fall to 121-3.
Liam Livingstone was then brought into the attack for the first time in his ODI career, and he had an instant impact as KL Rahul’s one-handed sweep shot was superbly caught one-handed by Moeen.
India’s collapse continued, having lost four wickets for just 54 runs, but with Pant still at the crease England knew the work was far from done.
India then began to turn the game back around as they targeted Livingstone and Moeen, hitting them both for several sixes.
Pant who has proved to be a thorn in England’s side throughout their India tour continued to frustrate the tourists as he brought up another half century in style with a maximum, off of 44 balls.
England’s much needed break
England finally got a much-needed wicket and it was the important one of Pant as he nicked Curran’s delivery through to Jos Buttler, who pulled off a stunning catch, moving the hosts to 256-5.
The two Pandya brothers were now at the crease and Hardik soon reached his 50 from just 36 deliveries not long after Pant’s dismissal.
Ben Stokes then broke the Pandya partnership as he removed Hardik with a good delivery that deflected off his thigh pad and onto the stumps.
With India 276-6 from 39 overs, it left England’s death bowlers with the chance to target India’s tailenders.
England found their seventh and Mark Wood’s first as Shardul Thakur nicked behind to Buttler who made another tidy catch.
With three wickets remaining India were 321-7 and had four overs remaining.
England’s plan continued to work and Wood had his second as Krunal picked out Jason Roy to pull off a superb one-handed grab whilst running backwards.
Wood then picked up another as he bowled Prasidh Krishna for a three-ball duck to leave India 329-9 with two overs left.
India’s innings then came to an end after Bhuvneshwar Kumar skied one straight up in the air, allowing Sam Curran to make an easy catch.
India were all out for 329, and despite that being a highly competitive score, they would feel frustrated that it was not more as they looked on course for 400 or more at one point.
An exciting opening over to England’s innings saw Roy score 14 before he was cleaned up by Bhuvneshwar with the final ball of the over.
They soon lost their second after Jonny Bairstow was hit on the pads by Bhuvneshwar and was given out.
Bairstow reviewed the decision, but with umpires call showing on the wickets he had to go.
Things could have got even worse for England after Hardik dropped a seemingly simple catch to remove Stokes when he was on 15.
The in-form man was not to be given another chance however, as he launched a shot straight down Dhawan’s throat.
The decision was initially checked for a no ball on height from Natarajan, but the replays showed it was a perfectly fair delivery meaning Stokes had to carry on walking.
With England slightly stuttering at 68-3, a big partnership from Buttler and Dawid Malan would be needed for them to regain control of the game.
Arguably the moment that changed the game saw an lbw shout on Buttler from the bowling of Thakur that was reviewed by Kohli.
It proved to be an excellent review as the DRS showed the ball was going onto hit the stumps, meaning Buttler had to walk.
Livingston and Malan initially regrouped for England he departed for 36 after the former played a poor shot straight back to Thakur.
Malan then reached his 50, but would prove to be in vain as two deliveries later fired a shot straight at Rohit.
Moeen came to the crease and offered brief resistance, before he tried to hit Bhuvneshwar for six, but only resulted in picking out Hardik.
England’s hopes started to slip away
England’s hopes were slowly beginning to slip away, but Curran started to attack which shocked India.
Rashid at the other end helped Curran out before he was dismissed for 19 after picking out Kohli at mid-off.
Wood arrived at 10 and assisted Curran in getting England to an unlikely position where they were beginning to get closer than anticipated to India’s target.
It came down to the final over, with Curran sitting on 90 not out, and England requiring 14 runs to secure an incredible victory.
However, within one ball of the over, hope began to fade once again as a stumble from Curran left Wood short of his crease at the other end and was run out.
Curran now knew that he had to take control and keep the strike when possible as Reece Topley arrived as the final man in.
Natarajan managed to hold his nerve however, and despite a boundary late on from Curran it was not enough and England fell seven runs short.
Curran ended a superb innings on 95 not out, earning him the player of the match award.
Bairstow man of the series
Bairstow picked up man of the series for scoring the most runs with 219.
Thakur was the leading wicket taker, picking up seven across the three games.
With that ends England’s long and highly challenging tour of India.
A 3-1 defat in the Test series was followed up by a 2-1 T20 series loss before the three ODIs this past week, resulting also in a 2-1 win for India.
England’s full focus now turns to the cricketing summer in England which looks to be an exciting one ahead, with visits from New Zealand and India to look forward to.
Many England players now will remain in India for the Indian Premier League, which starts in early April.
By Josh Mann
