Kedar Jadhav raised the possibility of a spectacular win for India with a splendid batting effort, but Chris Woakes stuck to his bowling discipline in the death to help England snatch victory by five runs in the third ODI at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.
Jadhav, who is emerging as a finisher for India, fell short of completing his task this time, stumbling at the last moment when India needed six runs off four balls.
Jadhav hit a six and a boundary off successive balls in the final over of Woakes but could not get the next six runs as the England pacer bowled four successive dot balls (which also included Jadhav’s wicket) to realise a fantastic win for England.
This was England’s first ODI win at the Eden Gardens, where it had lost all its three appearances, as the series ended 2-1 in India’s favour.
Jadhav, who scored 120 on debut to finish it for India in the first match at Pune, scored 90 off 75 balls (including 12 fours and a six) to haul India out of a hopeless situation and take it very close to realising a win.
Hardik Pandya joined Jadhav in his effort, and the two added 104 runs for the sixth wicket, when all the top names in the batting order were back in the pavilion.
England’s pace battery rocked the Indian resolve right from the start as the host altered its opening partnership bringing in Ajinkya Rahane for Shikhar Dhawan. Rahane failed to justify his selection walking back to the pavilion in the second over.
Unsettled by the early jolt, the other opener K.L. Rahul continued to flounder in the middle even as his captain, Virat Kohli, joined him.
Kohli stepped up the run rate with some good hitting. But, even that failed to instil confidence in Rahul, who mistimed an intended pull and ended up top-edging to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
Kohli, joined by comeback man Yuvraj Singh, tried to resurrect the run chase. Yuvraj, despite being hit on the ribcage by Jake Ball in the 10th over, played on valiantly.
Kohli, dropped once in the 13th over by Ball at long-leg when he tried to hit Liam Plunket over the ropes, continued to time well and reached his 50 in an unusually patient manner.
The India captain finally departed for 55 (63b, 8x4) in the 20th over when Ben Stokes got him slashing outside off-stump and Buttler grabbed the catch.
Yuvraj, hardly looking the devastating self that saw him reach a career-best 150 in the previous match at Cuttack, went for 45 (57b, 5x4, 1x6), caught at deep midwicket.
M.S. Dhoni (25) could not do much either, and left snicking to Buttler to usher in the Jadhav-Pandya partnership.
Earlier, England, put in, sailed on its batting strength to score 321 for eight.
Jason Roy, the most prolific England batsman in the series, played as is his wont, picking out the Indian pacers — Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah.
Batting in the company of Sam Billings, Roy forged a partnership of 98 runs that set the base for a big score. Roy scored 65 (56b, 10x4, 1x6) to aggregate a total of 220 runs at an average of 73.33.
England captain Eoin Morgan took on the task of run compilation with a breezy 43 and put on 84 runs in the company of Jonny Bairstow (56) for the third wicket.
Ben Stokes (57 not out, 39b, 4x4, 2x6) and Chris Woakes (34) raised a veritable hurricane pairing in a 73-run partnership.
