CHENNAI: Losing the toss and batting first for the third time in a row in this series, in the lookout for a safe total, India shelved their conservative approach only to be bowled out for 329 in 48.2 overs.
It was far from a par score on this flat deck against an England side that has batsmen who have a reputation for making such targets a walk in the park.
On Sunday, the Indian attack led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke the spine — openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow were dismissed by the third over –- of the world champions early in the chase.
Victory looked certain when England slipped to 257-8, only for Sam Curran — with help from poor fielding — to nearly snatch it away from the hosts with an unbeaten 95.
Needing 14 off the last over, T Natarjan was on the money giving away only six runs to hand India the series.
Needing 71 off the last 10 overs with just two wickets in hand, India shouldn’t have let England take the game so deep. But costly mistakes on the field, where they dropped two catches of successive deliveries in the 49th over (four in total) made it complicated for the hosts.
Having seen England out bat them in the second ODI, where India ended 30-40 runs short of a winning total despite scoring in excess of 330, there was a total change in their approach on Sunday.
Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, who prefer to drop anchor before gradually shifting gears, showed a lot more intent than usual.
Despite having the batsmen to do the job, India’s problem in ODIs on flat decks has been their gameplan of preserving wickets and taking the game deep. It has resulted in them not scoring enough boundaries in the initial period, where they have been content in scoring ones and twos.
Dhawan and Rohit, one of the most successful opening pairs, score only at 5.29 runs per over while batting first is a case in point.
Having got a hang of the wicket in the previous two matches, they showed intent from the beginning, even going for aerial shots, scoring 11 boundaries in the first powerplay. In the first ODI where these two played till 15.1 overs, there were only 89 runs in total.
With the two in full flow, they brought up their 11th-century stand in 14 overs, laying an ideal platform for the middle order to cash in.
The introduction of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali resulted in them losing Rohit, Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the space of four overs. And by the time KL Rahul gifted his wicket away in the 25th over, India had 157 on board. The situation demanded them to bat through the overs.
However, India chose to stick to their aggressive approach with Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya ensuring the run-rate didn’t dip. Half a dozen sixes and seven boundaries were hit in the 11.4 overs they batted together before both departed in the space of three overs.
By the time the second powerplay ended, their score read 283-6 with Krunal Pandya and Shardul Thakur in the middle. In the second PP between 11-40 overs, India scored 218 runs, losing six wickets.
It was nearly 60 more than what India had managed in the same period in the first two ODIs, where they scored 166-4 and 169-1. The lower-order, understandably, focused on batting out the overs and getting as many runs on board, but 329 still looked less.
Defending the total, Bhuvneshwar provided India with early breakthroughs and Shardul Thakur played his part by picking up key wickets to give a 2-1 series win that will give Kohli & Co the confidence to carry the aggressive approach forward.