India sweep ODI series with 142-run win against England
- 12 Feb 2025
Shubman Gill scored 112 in 102 balls as India thrashed England by 142 runs in their third One-Day International (ODI) on Wednesday and swept the series 3-0.
Gill hit 14 fours and three sixes in his sixth ODI century and India reached 356 in its 50 overs. Shreyas Iyer scored 78 off 64 balls, while Virat Kohli also contributed 52 off 55. Wrist spinner Adil Rashid took 4-64 - his best for England against India - in 10 overs.
In reply, England had another hapless batting performance and was bowled out for 214 in 34.2 overs.
India's left-arm spinners Axar Patel (2-22) and Kuldeep Yadav (1-38) combined to choke the middle overs. Pacers Arshdeep Singh (2-33) and Harshit Rana (2-31) were also effective.
It was the last warmup game for both teams ahead of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
India's star pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah was supposed to play this game to prove his fitness ahead of the Champions Trophy. But he was ruled out of that tournament owing to a lower back injury.
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss for the third consecutive match and this time elected to bowl.
India already had a 2-0 unassailable lead. It won the first two ODIs in Nagpur and Cuttack, both by four wickets respectively. It had won the preceding five-T20 series 4-1.
Jos Buttler admitted his team were outplayed by India in the three-match ODI series which concluded with a 142-run defeat for the visitors at Narendra Modi Stadium.
England batters heavily struggled against spin throughout their tour of India, which included a 1-4 defeat in the five-game T20I series and will need to make quick changes to their approach ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy set to kick off in Pakistan on February 19.
"Similar to the whole tour, we were outplayed by a fantastic team. Our approach is the right one, it's just that we haven't executed well. They put a great score on the board. Shubman played a great innings. We got off to a great start again but it's a familiar story for us. We need to find a way to bat for longer. We were up against a really good side that keeps challenging us," said Buttler in the post-game presentation.
The England batters heavily struggled throughout the three-game series with opener Ben Duckett and veteran Joe Root, who returned to the ODI side for the first time since the 2023 World Cup, being the only two English batters to accumulate three-digit scores across the three innings. Many will question the inconsistency on display by their middle-order which struggled against spin on more than one occasion.
Associated Press / IANS