Pant and Hardik power India to ODI series win over England

Rishabh Pant’s superb unbeaten 125 and a brilliant all-round display from Hardik Pandya led India to a five-wicket win over England in the third one-day international and a 2-1 series win.

Backed by the majority of a raucous crowd at Emirates Old Trafford, India bowled England out for 259 in 45.5 overs with Hardik taking a career-best 4-24 before thumping 71 from 55 balls in a 133-run stand with Pant as India raced to victory.

Reece Topley (3-35) had given England hope with a three-wicket burst in an excellent opening spell after Jos Buttler's (60) first half-century since succeeding Eoin Morgan as skipper had helped take England out of early trouble with the bat.

However, the brilliance of Pant (125no from 113) and Hardik saw India overcome early problems of their own to secure victory with 47 balls to spare.

For much of the innings, Pant was fairly reserved by his standards but he made sure he finished the job in style, smashing five fours in a row off David Willey before signing off with a reverse-sweep off Joe Root for another boundary.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Rohit Sharma revealed that Jasprit Bumrah had been ruled out due to a back spasm.

What seemed a significant blow to the visitors was quickly forgotten as his replacement, Mohammad Siraj (2-66) struck twice in the second over to send Jonny Bairstow (0) and Root (0) packing without troubling the scorers.

England responded in their typical manner, going on the attack with Jason Roy - having hit three boundaries in the first over - and Ben Stokes determined to impose themselves on the India bowlers.

They succeeded for a time, too, putting on 54 in good time before Roy (41 from 31 balls) top-edged a pull shot off Hardik and sent the ball