IND vs ENG | 3rd ODI: Virat Kohli's men dig deep to avert Sam Curran's heroics, clinch series

India averted a major heartbreak from the hands of Sam Curran and clinched the ODI series 2-1. The final game of the series turned out to be a thriller which was a fitting end for a series keenly contested by the top two sides in the format.

Both sides were in the contest till the penultimate ball of the game and fans could not have asked for a better finish to an almost two-month-long England’s tour of India. 

Sam Curran’s love affair with India

India had the game firmly in their control but England’s approach of coming at the bowlers with full intent kept them in the game. 

Their efforts were multiplied when Sam Curran, who came to bat at the number eight position, went on to mount a record score for a number eight batsman against Indian in ODIs.

Curran was smart enough to pick the bowlers he wanted to attack and denied any opportunity to get him out against others. He walked out to bat after the fall of Dawid Malan in the 26th over and was the lone man standing for England in pursuit of a target that had gone too far ahead of them.

He was eased into batting as his partner Moeen Ali was going great guns from the other end. However, the onus was to fall on Curran’s shoulder with the departure of Ali very soon. He announced his defiance with a big hit off Hardik Pandya but the task for him was to preserve wickets and take the game as deep as possible to put the pressure back on India.

He started timing the ball well and reaped all benefits of Prasidh Krishna’s inaccuracies tonight. He was the guiding force for England down the order but wickets were falling at regular intervals to give him any sort of breather. That sense of calmness at the other end arrived in the form of Mark Wood, but again the tourists had only two wickets left in the bank compared to 60 balls remaining for the bowling side.

He was calculative and played with Virat Kohli’s mind as he went for the kill and outbowled Bhuvneshwar Kumar whom Curran respected a lot. He was not willing to risk his wicket against Bhuvi’s bowling and backed himself to come at the top of all other bowlers. 

He banked on the approach of farming strike and protecting Mark Wood at the other end. He denied singles on offer which in hindsight could look like a deciding factor in the end, given the narrow loss England faced in the end. However, it needed their presence at the crease to even go that close.

It would have taken a breathtaking innings from him to bring England back in the game and on cue, he was there till the end to give India a serious scare till the penultimate ball of the game. 

Bhuvi swings it, India’s way

Before Sam Curran hogged all the limelight, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s new-ball spell that changed the outlook for India with the ball. 

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was threatening Jason Roy throughout the white-ball series and especially the ODIs. The start of the duel, however, went Roy’s way as the right-hander got off and running with two crisp drives. Roy found one more boundary before the pacer corrected his length to cut him into half and disturbed his off stump.

One of the two dangermen for England was gone, but Jonny Bairstow—the centurion of the last game was still there. The Yorkshireman has been batting outside of the cease to combat Bhuvi’s swing, but the pacer came into the big game having done his homework. 

The move of having the keeper standing up forced Bairstow to bat from the crease and Bhuvi found his pads in front of the stumps.

He accounted for both openers inside four overs and almost finished the chase for England when Ben stokes mistimed an uppish drive. But, Hardik Pandya dropped a sitter that he would be taken even when half-drunk and the all-rounder lived to fight another day.

He came back to pick another crucial wicket of Moeen Ali courtesy of a great fitting to the reputation of Hardik Pandya as a fielder. His last over that Kohli had saved as a treasure yielded only four runs as Curran did not attempt any big shot and it proved to be detrimental to England’s cause.

After England lost their top order, the newest pair in the line up—Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone took it upon themselves to resurrect England. Kohli tried to get some overs from Krunal Pandya, but the plan was thwarted by the right-hander as he stepped out to hit Krunal out of the attack. 

At the other end, Malan was nudging the ball in gaps to keep the scoreboard going for England. The run rate was always under control as all batsmen except him played with good intent and the left-hander put on fifty to keep England in the hunt for a series-winning chase.

‘Lord’ Shardul at it again

Shardul was introduced in the middle overs—a phase of the game he takes his wickets in but for India’s concern also leaks out runs. The latter part proved to be true as England’s skipper Jos Buttler welcome him with a sweetly timed boundary through the off side. 

Living to his reputation of conceding runs but picking wickets, he came back to trap Butteler LBW to dent England’s case severely. 

The next man in Livingstone was not any kind to him either and plundered him for 14 runs to make his bowling figure look terrible on runs. Kohli changed his ends and it worked wonders for the right-armer as a full toss to Livingstone handed him another wicket in the middle overs.

Shardul has had a taste of both good luck and hammering until then and the story was not changing one bit for him. He picked two more wickets, including one of Malan that proved to be excruciating for the tourists, but Curran made sure his bowling figure would maintain the equilibrium of too many runs against the fair share of wickets.

Earlier in the afternoon, Kohli lost yet another toss—his 10th in the last 12 games and Buttler was in no mood to change what was working for them in the previous games. 

Rohit-Dhawan give up on a slow start

Having seen England top order making a meal of 330 odd runs set in the last game, Rohit and Dhawan had no choice but to accept that they lacked in intent in the last game. The opening pair is experienced enough to understand the chink in their armour and they started showing efforts to add impetus to the innings early on.

Their eagerness to put bowlers under pressure started paying dividends as Reece Topley erred in his length to put India on a well-paced track to set a good total.

They put on a 100-run partnership in just 14 overs to announce that they too can play in dominating fashion at the top of the order. In the process, they joined the elite list of players who have forged greater partnerships over a long period of time.

Trial by spin

Rashid Khan made a poor start to his bowling spell and bowled a half-tracker that Dhawan dully capitalised on. However, the revenge was not too far away as the leg spinner dished out two wrong’uns in his two successive overs to account for both Dhawan and Rohit.

Both Indian openers were guilty of not picking Rashid off his hand and Rohit lost his off stump while Dhawan spooned an easy return catch to the bowler on deliveries that were destined to go the other way. 

India squandered their impressive start in a span of two overs as Kohli and KL Rahul joined each other in another rebuilding process. They had done fulfilled the task successfully in the last game, but it was not to be.

Moeen Ali was brought in tandem with Rashid from the other end, and the off-spinner turned one viciously to miss India’s skipper attempt of a backfoot punch. Kohli was left bewildered on how the ball could spin so much on a pitch he thought would be needed only one spinner in his team. It was poetic justice to Kohli’s inability to read the surface correctly and India were tattering in the middle phase.

KL Rahul once again found it tough to get going early in his innings. Looking at India’s approach of rebuilding, Buttler tried to get some overs out of Livingstone’s mixed ability of bowling both off-spin and leg-spin. 

Livingstone attempted a leg spinner on his second ball but could not land it on the pitch. Rahul’s eyes got lit up when he saw a full toss but could not time at all and the fine leg fielder accepted the chance gleefully to put India under serious pressure in the series decider.

Pant-Pandya and India’s onslaught

Rishabh Pant was promoted to the number four slot to maintain a left hand-right hand combination at the crease to combat the spin twins of Rashid and Ali. Pant played safely for the first 10 balls he faced and got his eyes in before taking the game to Rashid. An attempted googly was picked right out of his hands and was deposited over the cow corner.

Rashid was persisted and a riveting contest was on offer. The leg spinner was reluctant to pitch the ball in Pant’s half, but even a relatively shorter ball was treated mercilessly by his brutal and rapid wrist. Pant brought one more shot from his exclusive repertoire to send a signal to the opposition that India, too, mean business in the middle over.

When Pant was tearing apart Rashid’s line of attack, Pandya was waiting for his chances at the other end. To match up against England’s match up game, Pandya waited for Ali to bowl to him. The opportunity arrived on the 28th over and he dispatched the off-spinner three times in an over to keep India on a near-perfect track to post a huge total.

Both Pant and Pandya went on to score vital fifties. However, they perished in the process of living their life on the edge of the sword.

Virat Kohli would be disappointed as his teammates dropped as many as four chances that may well have proven to be too costly for them in the series decider, but he will take the wins against a near full-strength England side, at least in the white-ball leg of the series with both hands.

For England, the white-ball leg of the tour did not pose too many questions that they were not aware of. They were as competitive as the hosts were and will walk away from the tour with their shoulders high.