The final ODI at Headingley, Leeds was supposed to be thriller. But as it turned out,the match ended up being a one-sided affair. England chased down the target of 257 quite comfortably with 5 overs to spare. Root with back to back centuries and brilliant bowling effort by the English bowlers helped them seal the series in style.
Eoin Morgan had won the toss and opted to bowl. Virat Kohli was happy to bat first. England had a forced change with James Vince coming in place of injured Jason Roy. India had three changes: Bhuvneshwar Kumar in place of Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur in place of Siddarth Kaul and Dinesh Karthik replacing KL Rahul.
India didn't start of well in the powerplay. Rohit Sharma flicked one straight to deep midwicket of David Willey. Kohli and Dhawan were just starting to get into the groove but the latter was found short of his crease resulting in a runout. Karthik looked aggressive right from the onset. But that didn't last long as he inside-edged the ball straight onto the stumps.
Adil Rashid removed Kohli and Raina in quick succession. Although it took a beauty from Rashid to dismiss Kohli who looked set at 71. Pandya didn't last long either. From thereafter it was typical Dhoni who looked to rotate strike and pick up an odd boundary. But he was removed by Willey with a delievery that squared him up.Thakur albeit his brisk cameo of 22 of 13 took India's score to 256.
England started off rather quite well with Bairstow scoring 30 off just 13 balls. Vince who looked set for a big score had to make way to the pavilion courtesy a runout. There was no looking back after that from England. They just didn't allow the Indian spinners to settle. Both Root and Morgan rotated the strike and took the opportunities to collect a boundary when on offer.
Eventually they chased down the target with Root(100) and Morgan(88) being unbeaten. It was a fantastic effort from the Englishmen to seal the series 2-1.
Adil Radhid was named as Player of the Match for his figures of 3-49.
Joe Root was named Player of the Series.
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Great write up of the match as usual. I really enjoy reading your posts
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