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Cricket

“PANTtastic knock”: Twitter lauds Rishabh Pant as India clinch the series by 2-1 against England

Rishabh Pant scored a magnificent 125 as India beat England by 5 wickets in the third ODI at Manchester to take the series 2-1.

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Jennifer
New Update

The series decider third ODI between India and England got underway at Old Trafford, Manchester on Sunday at 3:30 pm. Indian captain Rohit Sharma once again won the toss and chose to put the English batters to test against India’s lethal pace attack. The decision was further vindicated by Mohmmad Siraj and Hardik Pandya who gave England regular blows and had them reeling at 74-4 at one stage.

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Seeing the team in trouble, captain Jos Buttler got together with Moeen Ali to stitch a 75-run-partnership which took the team out of the precarious situation. Buttler along with Livingstone added another 49 runs to the total as England seemed to be running away with the game. All-rounder Hardik Pandya came back with a double strike once again removing Livingstone and Buttler in the same over.

Thanks to a joint effort by Pandya and the other Indian bowlers, England were restricted to 259 in 45.5 overs. Apart from the all-rounder, Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammad Siraj also found themselves amongst the wickets. Chahal picked up three wickets for 60 runs while Siraj picked up 2 for 66.

Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan came out to chase 260 and snatch the series away from England. The chief destroyer of the Indian batting in the second ODI Reece Topley was once again breathing fire as he removed the openers and Virat Kohli in quick succession. India lost another wicket pretty quickly and were struggling at 72/4 as they once again looked helpless in front of Topley.

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Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant came together with the responsibility of taking India to safe shores which they did quite admirably as they added a magnificent 133-run stand for the fifth wicket. Both batters took their time early on to get going and once they got into the groove, they took the attack on the English bowlers. Pandya was dismissed for a marvellous 71 off 55 balls but Pant stayed in the middle and launched an onslaught as he brought up his first ODI hundred for India. The wicketkeeper batter scored an unbeaten 125 off 113 balls as India won the match by five wickets with 47 balls to spare.

Here's how Twitter reacted to a thumping Indian victory:

 

India