Ranchi: Indian bowlers put in an inspired show before Virat Kohli returned to form with a rollicking unbeaten 77 as the hosts spanked England by seven wickets in the third one-dayer to make captain MS Dhoni’s first match in his home town a memorable one here on Saturday.
India first bundled out the visitors for a paltry 155 in 42.2 overs riding on Ravindra Jadeja’s 3-19 and then chased down the target with 21.5 overs to spare to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match match series.
Nearly 40,000 vociferous spectators at the newly built JSCA Stadium cheered Kohli, who rediscovered his form, and other Indian batsmen as they went about the run chase without much fuss in what turned out to be a rather lop-sided contest.
The script unfolded like a dream for home boy Dhoni as he won the toss and his bowlers responded magnificently by skittling out the visitors for a meagre total even though it was not a difficult wicket to bat on.
Only Joe Root (39) could hang around at the crease while opener Ian Bell (25) and Tim Bresnan (25) were the other contributors as England lost wickets at regular intervals.
After being reduced to 98 for six, Root and Tim Bresnan stitched together 47 runs for the seventh wicket, but after the fall of the former it was all over for England.
Apart from Jadeja, who again excelled with his left-arm spin, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma chipped in with two wickets apiece to maintain the pressure on the hapless English batsmen, who never recovered from the early jolts.
India also lost opener Ajinkya Rahane (0) early, but Gautam Gambhir (33) and Kohli steadied the innings to some extent by putting on 67 runs for the second wicket.
After Gambhir’s dismissal, Kohli and Yuvraj Singh (30) accelerated the pace of scoring with a flurry of explosive shots much to the delight of the home crowd. Yuvraj was, however, out with 12 runs left to win.
Kohli blasted as many as two sixes and nine fours during his knock which formed the cornerstone of the Indian response.
Dhoni hit the winning runs by pulling Steven Finn to the square-leg boundary to trigger off scenes of celebration in the galleries and the Indian dressing room.
The biggest positive for India was Kohli’s return to form as he became the second fastest batsman – behind Vivian Richards – to get to 4,000 ODI runs with his 22nd half-century.
The two teams will now travel to Mohali for the fourth match to be held on January 23.
“Bowlers did the job for us,” Dhoni said after the match. “It was important to take wickets with the new ball. 150-odd was not enough to defend for the English side. Gautam batted well with Virat, that was important as the ball was doing something.
“Most of the bowlers are new. Bhuvi and Shami have just got into the side. I expect contribution from them. They will get a lot of confidence out of this,” he added. “Everything went off well, we won the game, it was a perfect script.”
England captain Alastair Cook said it had to be a freak day if they were to beat India with their paltry score.
“150 was nowhere near enough on that wicket. Credit to India. Not really going to defend that, unless it is a freak day. We needed a bit of freakish result, needed early wickets,” Cook said.
The visiting captain was confident, however, that the team would “regroup” to give a better performance on Wednesday.
Kohli, who was adjudged Man-of-the-Match, said he did not repeat the mistake of playing pre-planned shots.
“I was batting well for a while but getting out in different ways, got a few good balls and made a few mistakes. Today I just reacted to the way the ball was thrown at me. I just followed my instincts. I did not have to pre-plan which I was doing in the previous games. It was a difficult wicket, Finn gets the ball to seam on any wicket,” he said. (PTI)