Last Night India bagged a splendid win against England in a 3-match ODI series. On Sunday, with a memorable sweep off of 2-1 against England in the third ODI at Old Trafford in Manchester, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and batsman and wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant outdid themselves in the most fascinating way ever.
India had a jump start in the first ODI match at the Kennington Oval where they won with 10 wickets. Straight from Lord’s cricket ground, the second ODI took place where England defeated India by 100 runs. The third ODI was a series decider match and the men in blue made us all proud by making a needed steller return.
In this do-or-die match, Rishabh Pant’s maiden ODI century and Pandya’s 4 wickets by only giving 24 runs made the match much more remarkable.
India had a run target of 260 to chase but to restrict England’s great performance to this run score was a task which Indian bowlers and especially Hardik Pandya beautifully executed. With his bowling, he kept the star performers of England in check. He took important wickets like that of Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, and soon after Liam Livingstone. But everything changed when this bowler-in-chief took the wicket of top scorer and captain of England Jos Buttler.
Mid Innings statement by Hardik Pandya for his beloved captain Rohit Sharma
In the mid-innings, we see how Hardik Pandya talks to the commentators about the amazing captaincy of Rohit Sharma. The workload he has been bestowed upon with and how splendidly he fulfills it. He said,
“I had to bend my back a bit, change my plans and realise you need to use the short ball as a wicket-taking ball. I always fancy my bouncer. Livingstone likes to take the short ball on and that gives me goosebumps. He hit me for two sixes, but one wicket made a big difference. The body’s fine, the captain is fantastic at managing my workload. The chase is about intent, the wicket is pretty good to bat on. We’ll fancy our chances to chase it down”
Hardik was awarded The Player Of The Series
The partnership between him and Rishabh Pant was what marked India on the path to successful winning. Rishabh scored 125 not out off 113 balls, smashing 16 fours and 2 sixes in total meanwhile Hardik hit 71 off 55 balls, smashing 10 fours. Not just this Hardik also made his career’s best figure on 4/24 at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Speaking at the post-match presentation he said,
“White ball is something close to me. We all know such a good team England is. For us as a team it was important for us to come here, set out the plans what we’ll bowl. Important for me to stop the runs, bowl as many dot balls. They were cruising at one point. I love short balls. Don’t fancy people taking me on. Gets me into the game. Don’t mind getting hit for six sixes also if I can get a wicket. That’s his game as well, he takes his chances. I always feel I’m shameless as a bowler. Don’t care how far I get hit. We all know what talent he has. Finally today he was playing the situation. The partnership changed the game for us. The way he finished the game was also special.”
Takes 4 wickets with the ball, A crucial 71 off 55 with the bat!
Stitches a valuable partnership with Pant!
This Indian team looks different with Hardik Pandya…
The man for crunch games!!#INDvENG #ENGvIND #HardikPandya #IndianCricketTeam #RishabhPant pic.twitter.com/4hwCdNqRbV— OneCricket (@OneCricketApp) July 17, 2022
Captain Rohit Sharma says he is very pleased and appreciates the performance of the team and this amazing duo of Pandya and Pant
Captain Rohit Sharma expresses his happiness and praises the duo of Pant and Pandya by saying, Â “Very pleased. We came here and wanted to achieve something as a group in white-ball, and we did. Moving forward there are things we need to improve but are pleased with the effort. We were here last time and we were beaten I remember. It is not an easy place to come and win games but the way we played the entire white-ball leg was fantastic. Wanted to do it for a long period of time, to achieve it was brilliant.”
“It was a good pitch, but we knew it won’t be easy if we lost wickets early. It happened, but the positive is that these guys haven’t batted a long period in the middle overs and we got to see that from Rishabh and Hardik. Both of them were clinical, at no point did we feel they were panicking. They played great cricketing shots.”
Brilliant run chase and a great series win. #INDvsEND #BCCI #IndianCricketTeam #ViratKohli #RohitSharma #RishabhPant #bumrah #ICC #Cricket pic.twitter.com/xFROqB5lW6
— ͡K͎ ͜ᴀ ʀ ͡ ͜ᴛ ʜ ͡K͎ (@its_karthikoff) July 18, 2022
With such amazing performance throughout the series and especially in the last ODI Hardik Pandya was bestowed with the player of series Award as well. It is indeed a winning worth remembering.Â