Sam Curran has played one of the best innings of his life but it was not good enough to drag his side back from the brink as Indian seamers Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped the hosts to beat England by 7 runs in a thrilling third one-day international on Sunday and win the series 2-1.
Chasing a mammoth total of 330, England ended with 322-9, just seven-run short from the victory in the series decider at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
England was 257-8 in the 40th over of the match, in such a situation, all-rounder Sam Curran and seamer Mark Wood kept their side in the hunt with a 60-run partnership on the ninth wicket.
Curran, who was dropped on 22 and 87, remained unbeaten on a career-best 95 but could not hit the required 14 runs in the final over. Wood made 14.
Earlier, depending on half-centuries of Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya, India made a fighting total of 329.
Mark Wood picked up 3 wickets for England while Adil Rashid got 2 and the rest of the England bowlers picked up one for each.
The target did not appear too imposing for England, who chased down 337 with 39 deliveries remaining in the previous match, but Bhuvneshwar’s early breakthroughs put the hosts on top.
Dawid Malan, the only successful batsman in England’s top order, scored a 50 while other batsmen were not very comfortable on the pitch.
Shardul Thakur picked up 4-67 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar ended with a figure of 3-42.
With this ODI series, India confirmed all three, Test, Twenty20, and One-Day series win against England as they seal the Test series earlier by 3-1 and T20I by 3-2.
ARR
