Rishabh Pant century guides India to series victory over England

On a roasting hot day in Manchester it was Rishabh Pant who brought things to the boil, his masterful maiden ODI century steering India to a five-wicket win and seeing Jos Buttler’s reign as England’s white-ball captain begin with defeats in both formats.

Set 260 to claim this decider, the tourists had suffered some early flashbacks to last Thursday’s 100-run defeat at Lord’s when Reece Topley rolled over the form witnessed in that six-wicket performance and wiped out the top three with the new ball. England, under par with the bat, suddenly believed a repeat was in the offing.

But from 72 for four in the 17th over, once Craig Overton had nicked off Suryakumar Yadav with some extra bounce, Pant and Hardik Pandya began brutalising Buttler’s attack in a 133-run stand that broke the back of the chase and had the majority-Indian crowd in raptures; not for the first time, England were playing an away game at home.

After earlier delivering four wickets with seven overs of right-arm spite, Pandya fell for a 55-ball 71 with 55 runs required. But Pant ploughed on unperturbed, muscling 15 fours and two sixes overall to finish 121 not out from 112 balls and finish the job with eight overs to spare. This was a vintage innings, his first century in 27 one-day appearances and the type that could easily unlock more from this special talent.

Pant and Pandya did offer chances. Buttler missed a stumping chance when the former was on 18, while the latter saw a four sail over Overton’s head on six after the Somerset man misjudged its trajectory. Neither looked back, however, Pandya lasering drives with precision and Pant batting like a left-handed Asterix after a swig of magic potion.

It was Buttler who had earlier provided the ballast for