India beat England by seven runs in a tense decider on Sunday to clinch the one-day international series 2-1 in Pune.
Sam Curran gave the hosts a scare with an unbeaten 95 but Virat Kohli’s men held their nerves to see out the win and take the series.
Half-centuries by Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya had helped India set England a target of 330. The Indian innings was built on two big partnerships – 103 for the opening wicket between Rohit Sharma (37) and Dhawan and 99 for the fifth wicket between Pant and Pandya.
Pant’s sparkling knock came off 62 balls while Pandya needed 44 for his blistering innings but India lost their last four wickets for a mere eight runs.
Pant, during his career-best knock, plundered four maximums and five boundaries, while Pandya smashed five fours and four sixes.
For England, Mark Wood was the most successful bowler with figures of 3 for 34 while Adil Rashid took two wickets.
The visitors then endured the worst possible start to the run chase losing both openers – Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow – inside the opening three overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar who had provided India with the two early breakthroughs nearly had a third wicket when Ben Stokes skied a shot but Hardik Pandya couldn’t complete a regulation catch.
It was to be the theme of the evening as England despite losing key wickets remained in the game as India dropped three more catches during the innings to keep them in the hunt.
With England 200/7, the match looked beyond the visitors but Curran battled on to give them a real chance. The hosts seemed visibly worried as England needed just 23 runs off the last three overs. But some fine death bowling by Hardik Pandya and T Natarajan ensured that India recorded the series-clinching victory.
Shardul Thakur returned with figures of 4/67 while Bhuvneshwar Kumar got three.
India had already won the Test and Twenty20 series and with the ODI series win, Virat Kohli’s men completed the clean sweep.
Brief Scores:
India: 329 all out in 48.2 overs (Rishabh Pant 78, Shikhar Dhawan 67, Hardik Pandya 64; Mark Wood 3/34).
England: 322 for 9 in 50 overs (Sam Curran 95 not out; Shardul Thakur 4/67, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/42).
With PTI inputs