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Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team defeated Jos Buttler's England in the third and final ODI by 142 runs which was being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, on February 12 (Wednesday). Shubman Gill's century and fifties from Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer highlighted the batting after which Indian bowlers put class performance as well to help the hosts clean sweep the English side and win this series 3-0. The Men in Blue outclassed and outperformed the visitors in all departments and ended their final assignment before the much-awaited Champions Trophy 2025 in style.
Shubman Gill's century steals show
Star Indian batter Shubman Gill produced a scorching hundred against England in the third ODI. Gill hammered the England bowlers, reaching his hundred in just 95 balls. This was Gill's seventh ODI hundred. The Indian vice-captain has been the Men in Blue's most reliable batter in the current series with an 87 in the opening game and a 60 in Cuttack, Rohit Sharma was dismissed for just one run, so the 25-year-old had some early work to do.
Early on, Gill and Kohli, the former being the aggressive pair, withstood the storm from the England pacers. Gill and Kohli began to drift apart. Atkinson and Joe Root were still leaking runs at the other end. With a spectacular boundary off Adil Rashid, Gill would get his fifty and reach the milestone in fifty-one balls. As India's momentum remained after Kohli fell, Gill changed tactics and kept hitting the boundaries. Gill became the fastest hitter in ODI history to reach 2500 runs during his performance.
Apart from Gill, Kohli scored 52 off 55, Iyer 78 off 64, and KL Rahul played a cameo knock of 40 runs off 29 balls. Riding on these knocks, the hosts managed to post a massive total of 356 runs.
Indian bowlers walk through England batters
After Indian batters, it was time for the bowlers to make a statement. England openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett did provide their team with a blazing start but their 60-run opening stand came to an end by the 7th over itself. By the 9th over, they had 80 runs on board but both openers were back into the pavilion.
This allowed Indian bowlers to take control of the match and as a result, the Three-Lions kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. England went from 60/1 to 175/8 as they failed to build a partnership around any point in time. They were eventually bowled out for 214 runs. Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Hardik Pandya, and Axar Patel took two wickets each. Meanwhile, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav settled with one each.
This clean sweep win would be a major confidence boost for the Men in Blue ahead of the Champions Trophy 2025. They are already dealing with Jasprit Bumrah's missing out on the mega tournament and this kind of performance from batters only get more crucial.
