Rohit ton, Pandya career-best give India T20I honours::💥💥.
Rohit Sharma's record third T20I hundred following Hardik Pandya's career-best haul of 4 for 38 gave India the T20I series as they beat hosts England by seven wickets in the decider in Bristol on Sunday (July 8). Led by Pandya's four-fer, the bowlers paved way for India to claw back into the game after a blistering start from the English openers. With Rohit at his best, India hardly had to break a sweat as they overhauled the target of 199 with more than an over to spare.
After playing a spectator at the other end to KL Rahul's century in the series opener, Rohit showed that the flicks and the swivel pulls were all in place as he launched India's chase in style despite losing his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan early. England erred by feeding him with short balls, helping Rohit find his momentum in no time. Rahul, who opened his account with a copybook straight drive, took over for a brief moment in the game as he lofted Liam Plunkett and pulled Jake Ball into the stands in the space of three deliveries. But that's how long his show lasted as Jordan pulled off a stunner at wide of long-off fence to break the budding partnership.
A second wicket inside powerplay and the introduction of Adil Rashid slowed India a tad going forward. A lucky top-edge for four took Rohit to his fifty off 28 balls, while Virat Kohli took his time settling in. At the halfway mark, India had fallen 11 runs behind what England had at the same time. But while the home team's slide started at this stage, India overcame the sluggish phase and marched ahead of England's respective score to consistently bring down the required rate and the pressure, if any.
The pacers returned in the 11th over and Rohit wasted no time in pressing the accelerator. Kohli too marched into the 40s with the help of two sixes in successive overs, but an fine caught and bowled from Jordan gave England a breakthrough against the run of play. After a good day with the ball, Pandya was handed a promotion to No. 4 with India still 48 away, and he did not disappoint.
He saw off the last remaining over of Rashid without taking any risks, but didn't shy away from going after the pacers. Ball was welcomed back with back to back boundaries, before Pandya ruined David Willey's figures by hitting him for a six and two more boundaries in a quick cameo. Rohit notched up the hundred off 55 balls and passed on the strike to Pandya, who sealed the game and the series with a six.
Inserted in earlier in the day, England and Buttler started their assault as early as the third ball. With half a dozen boundaries in the first two and a half overs, Buttler tore into India's new-ball bowlers - debutant Deepak Chahar and Umesh Yadav. The attack intensified with Jason Roy overtaking his opening partner to a quick fifty in the space of next four overs - laced with five sixes, as the Indians continued to bowl full. Pandya opened, and persisted with, short balls on the hard wicket in his first over that went for 22 runs, of which Roy hit 21.
The powerplay yielded 73 and the only realistic chance India had during the early carnage was a mistimed slog sweep from Buttler in Yuzvendra Chahal's first over, but the ball popped out of Siddarth Kaul's hands. A single brought Roy on strike who brought up his half-century with a six, taking only 23 balls to get there and becoming the second-quickest Englishman to do so.
Kaul though made amends soon after by getting India the much-needed breakthrough as Buttler failed to make much use of the reprieve, However, if it was Buttler's swing and miss that put the breaks on England, Roy's caught-behind - for Chahar's maiden wicket - pushed them into a slide.
With wickets falling at regular intervals, England managed only 87 runs in the second half of their innings despite being at a rather comfortable 111/2 from their first ten. Chahal was at the centre of it, bowling his four overs in the same stretch and putting a lid on England until Hales's consecutive fours eased off the pressure a tad. However, Pandya reaped the rewards of it in a game-changing second spell where he picked all of his wickets for just 16 runs.
It started with Eoin Morgan's slog and Hales's caught behind in the same over, and trickled on to his final over. In between, Bairstow seemed determined to take England past the 200 mark but Pandya most definitely put paid to those efforts with another double-wicket over, also accounting for Ben Stokes's wicket. With only 23 coming off final three overs, England had to settle for a sub-par 198.
Brief scores: England 198/9 in 20 overs (Jason Roy 67, Jos Buttler 34; Hardik Pandya 4-38, Siddarth Kaul 2-35) lost to India 201/3 in 18.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 100, Virat Kohli 43, Hardik Pandya 33) by seven wickets.