India vs England 2021, 3rd ODI – Who Said What?

And India wins the third One Day International by 7 runs to dominate the visiting England in all the three formats of the game. The three-match ODI series between the number one and number two ranked ODI teams was nothing less than a nail-biting affair as both teams gave it their all to win the series.

The final One Day International saw Virat Kohli again losing the toss and Jos Buttler inviting the hosts to put the total on the board first. In the first innings, India started on a decent note as the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a crucial partnership of 103 runs. However, Rohit’s wicket in the 15th over initiated a collapse as India found themselves reeling at 157-4 within 25 overs.

Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya emerged as the wrecker-in-chief for the Men in Blue as both played sublime knocks of 78 off 62 and 64 off 44 deliveries respectively to drive India towards a total of 329 for 10 within 48.2 overs. For visitors, Mark Wood was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets.

Sam Curran shines with the willow

Chasing 330, England had a torrid start as Bhuvneshkumar Kumar cleaned up both Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow in his first two overs. Ben Stokes and Dawid Malan tried to stitch a partnership in the middle but T Natarajan picked Stokes when he was playing at 35 runs. The middle overs saw Shardul Thakur going all guns blazing against England’s feeble batting order as he picked as many as four wickets.

Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, England was never out of the game as every batsman tried to contribute to the scoreboard to keep the chase alive. Despite ending on the wrong side of the result, Sam Curran won hearts with his match-defining knock of not out 95 runs off 83 balls. 

However, a stunning show by Hardik, Natarajan, and Bhuvneshwar in the death meant that India managed to have the last laugh and clinched the One Day series by 2-1.

Losing skipper, Jos Buttler said

A fantastic game, both sides made some mistakes but played some brilliant cricket. We witnessed an incredible knock from Curran to nearly get us over the line, but congratulations to India on winning. We’ve learnt a lot as a side and seen many guys stand up and take the lead. The white-ball leg was incredibly competitive. These are the conditions we will face in the near future in the World Cup. It’s a great experience for the young guys to play a top-class side like India and they will be better cricketers for it.

We didn’t bowl that well at the top, gave away easy boundaries, but dragged it back only to be pegged back by Pant and Pandya, but we restricted them well enough. We didn’t have those big partnerships to take us over the line. We’ve played excellent cricket for a number of years, the talent pool in white-ball cricket is growing and creates competition in the squad and drives us to do better.

We bat deep as a side, it’s one of our strengths, but Sam Curran did well to take responsibility, and take a lot of the strike and it took great character to play the way he did, and he has those amazing qualities in abundance. I know he will be disappointed he didn’t get us over the line, but we are all very proud of him and his performance.

Winning skipper, Virat Kohli, said

When the top-two battle each other, we’ll get exciting games. No one will throw in the towel, and Sam played a really good innings to keep them in the hunt. However, our bowlers picked up wickets, and it moved from us finishing it off to them getting over the line before Hardik and Nattu pulled it back. It’s most disapponting for the guy who drops the catch, but as much as you get disappointed, catches get put down and sometimes they cost you.

There’s no lack of intent, and our body language was outstanding. Eventually we got over the line. I’m surprised Shardul wasn’t the man of the match, and Bhuvi wasn’t the man of the series. A lot of credit to them for bowling so well in adverse conditions. Prasidh and Krunal were impressive but death overs batting was extremely good, despite the early wickets, and if the top three can get a hundred, then we can get 370s and 380s later. This win has been sweet because it’s against the top team in the world, and we’re looking forward to the IPL. It’s been an amazing season, series, and this was a great way to finish it off.

Scheduling needs to be looked at in future, since playing in bubbles will be difficult, and everyone can’t have the same mental capacity all the time, but I’m looking forward to the IPL for now.

Player of the match, Sam Curran, said

We didn’t win the game, but happy with the way I played. I love winning, but it was a great experience. I haven’t done that for England for a long time, but in the end we lost. I wanted to take the majority o the balls and take it deep. It was hard to defend, but Natarajan bowled really well in the end and shows why he’s a really good bowler. I realized that one side was shorter and Bhuvi is a fantastic bowler so I played him out. Fantastic ground, great pitch and an amazing batting line-up for India, so it has been a great learning curve. Looking forward to the IPL in these conditions in a few weeks time.

Player of the series, Jonny Bairstow, said

‘ve been pleased with my striking, but we’d like to be on the winning side. Today, it just wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t score a lot in the Tests, but it was pleasing to come back and do well in the white-ball leg and I’ll be taking the confidence into the IPL. We know Bhuvi’s skills, and I think getting outside off is the way to counter it. We had a conversation about it and we played him in the Sunrisers’ camp, so we’ll have practice against him, don’t worry about that. Curran was special wasn’t he? He’s played out of his skin, and we know the quality and talent he has, and the belief he had to take us over the line, but congratulations to Nattu and how he executed the yorkers at the death. There’s not many people I would trust more than Sam to clear the short boundaries and he was absolutely fantastic today.