Kohli: Shardul and Bhuvneshwar should have been Player of the Match and Series

2021-03-28T23:09:00.002-07:00

India's seven-run win in the third ODI against England won them the series 2-1 and completed a sweep across formats.

India had put up 329 and had England on the ropes at 257 for 8, but a career-best 83-ball 95* by Sam Curran kept England in the game till the end of the final over. Curran had also got the wicket of a free-flowing Rishabh Pant to end India's best partnership in their innings. In a relatively rare occurrence, players from the losing side were awarded the Player-of-the-Match and Player-of-the-Series awards, Curran winning the former and Jonny Bairstow the latter for topping the run-charts in the series with scores of 94, 124 and 1.

India captain Virat Kohli expressed his surprise at the choices for the awards, holding that Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumarwere better candidates for both.

"I am quite surprised that he (Thakur) wasn't the Man of the Match today, to be honest," Kohli told Star Sports at the post-match presentation ceremony. Thakur had figures of 4 for 67 and had earlier scored 30 off 21.

Jos Buttler proud of the way England stuck to values despite defeat to India

2021-03-28T23:08:00.001-07:00

Jos Buttler, England's stand-in captain, says he is proud of the manner in which his side stayed true to the values that won them the 50-over World Cup at Lord's two years ago, despite succumbing to a thrilling seven-run defeat in the ODI series decider against India in Pune.

Faced with a stiff target of 330, England had slumped to 168 for 6 shortly after the halfway mark of their innings, but kept throwing their punches to the bitter end. Sam Curran belied a previous ODI highest score of 15 to finish with 95 not out from 83 balls, but a lack of batting partners undermined his attempts to seal the chase, as he was forced to turn down singles in the frantic closing overs.

And with Dawid Malan producing a run-a-ball 50 after his promotion to the full squad as an injury replacement for Eoin Morgan, and Liam Livingstone playing his second free-spirited innings in as many ODIs after stepping into Sam Billings' role in the middle order, Buttler believes that England have made strides on this white-ball leg of their India tour, despite losing the decider in both the 20-over and 50-over rubbers.

"You play the game to win matches and to win series, and in the must-win games, we haven't quite managed to do that, so of course, we're disappointed with that," Buttler said. "But there'll be some great learnings taken from the tour, and some great exposure to players playing in this part of the world for the first time."

"Once again, we've expanded the talent pool available to us in one-day cricket, building ahead to the T20 World Cup in a few months' time and, of course, the 2023 World Cup later on down the line as well.

"So anytime we expand that player pool, that creates competition, that creates better performances, and that's the upward trajectory that we're always after as a side, that continuous improvement."

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Kohli: Shardul and Bhuvneshwar should have been Player of the Match and Series

Jos Buttler proud of the way England stuck to values despite defeat to India