India Beat England by Five Wickets, Clinch Series
Mohali, Oct 20 (PTI): India beat England by five wickets in the third ODI at Mohali on Thursday to clinch the series. In reply to England's challenging total of 298 for four Skipper MS Dhoni and Jadeja to India home with 4 balls to spare.
Earlier, Jonathan Trott scored a majestic unbeaten 98 and stitched two crucial partnerships with Kevin Pietersen and Samit Patel to guide England to a challenging 298 for four.
Trott anchored the England innings during his 116-ball unconquered knock and together with Pietersen (64) and Patel (70 not out) added 101 and unbeaten 103 runs, respectively.
Trott crafted his innings beautifully, playing cautiously initially when Pietersen was going great guns but opened up later on in Patel's company.
Trott and Patel took the task to the opposition and sent the Indian bowlers on a leather hunt to pile up a huge 91 runs in the last 10 overs.
Patel was the more aggressive of the two as he did not spare a single Indian bowler en route to his quickfire half-century that came off just 43 balls, studded with seven boundaries and two huge hits over the fence.
All the Indian bowlers bleed runs on Thursday with left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja being the most economical among the wicket-takers with the figures of one for 41 from his eight overs.
England, however, did not have the best of the start after electing to bat as they lost captain Alastair Cook as early as in the fourth over with the scoreboard reading eight.
Cook was dismissed lbw to a Vinay Kumar delivery that jabbed in after pitching.
Handed a difficult lifeline by Praveen Kumar off his own bowling in the ninth over, Craig Kieswetter finally broke the shackles, hitting the pacer over the deep midwicket fence to bring up England's first six of the innings.
Interestingly, in all 19 matches played at the Punjab CA Stadium, 14 have been won by the side that batted first.
India lead the series 2-0 in the five-match series.