AGENCY
KOLKATA: Indian batsmen wilted under pressure and lost the plot in the final over after nearly pulling it off as England narrowly beat the hosts by five runs in a thrilling third and final ODI to prevent a clean sweep here today.
Kedar Jadhav (90 off 75 balls), who had helped India win the first ODI with a superb century, was on the verge of single-handedly taking his side to a memorable win as he hit a six and four in the first two balls of the final over but failed to rattle up the required 16 runs to lose the nail-biting match at the packed Eden Gardens.
All-rounder Ben Stokes, who was hit for four sixes in the fateful World T20 final at the same venue nine months back, had an emotional redemption as he scored 57 and took 3/63 to help England win the nail-biting match.
Chasing 322 for a win, India were cruising along with 27 needed from the final three overs but the match turned in England’s favour in the 48th over with the home side scoring just four runs from it while losing the wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin (1).
India still won the three-match series 2-1 after their victories in the first and second ODIs in Pune and Cuttack while England notched up their first win in this Indian tour.
They had lost the five-match Test series 4-0 preceding the ODI contest. Now the two sides head for the three-match T20 International series beginning on January 26 in Kanpur. It was another 300-plus run affair as the three-match series went into the record books with a total of 2090 runs that eclipsed 1892 runs scored in the Afro-Asia Cup in 2007.
score board
England innings
JJ Roy b Jadeja 65
SW Billings c Bumrah b Jadeja 35
JM Bairstow c Jadeja b Pandya 56
EJG Morgan* c Bumrah b Pandya 43
JC Buttler† c Rahul b Pandya 11
BA Stokes not out 57
MM Ali c Jadeja b Bumrah 02
CR Woakes run out (Kumar/†Dhoni) 34
LE Plunkett run out (sub [MK Pandey]/†Dhoni) 01
Extras 17
Total 321/8
India innings
AM Rahane b Willey 01
KL Rahul c †Buttler b Ball 11
V Kohli* c †Buttler b Stokes 55
Yuvraj Singh c Billings b Plunkett 45
MS Dhoni† c †Buttler b Ball 25
KM Jadhav c Billings b Woakes 90
HH Pandya b Stokes 56
RA Jadeja c Bairstow b Woakes 10
R Ashwin c Woakes b Stokes 01
B Kumar not out 00
JJ Bumrah not out 00
Extras 22
Total 316/9
