SANJJEEV K SAMYAL

LEEDS : To the utter disbelief of their army of supporters who had thronged Headingley in anticipation of a grand finale, India produced a limp show on the most important day of the limitedovers leg of their tour as they were outperformed by England in all departments in the third and final ODI on Tuesday.

Having conceded the psychological edge to England at Lord’s, the visitors lost the plot in the series decider on Tuesday as rampaging England outplayed Virat Kohli’s men by eight wickets to clinch the ODI series 2-1.

After restricting India to a below par 256/8, Joe Root (100 no) and captain Eoin Morgan (88 no) lead the chase with authority.

It was abject surrender as the Men in Blue put up an abysmal batting show and were equally listless on the field. They failed to make any impact on England with the ball and the game was over as a contest in the first 10 overs of the second half.

India were 32/1 after the first powerplay period; England had raced to 78/2 in 10 overs.

EARLY WORK UNDONE

It undid the psychological advantage India had gained by dominating the early exchanges as England ticked all boxes in preparation for the 2019 World Cup.

The India pace bowlers only needed to keep it tight for the spinners to try and build pressure. But by the time the spinners got into the attack, England had reached 74/1 in nine overs.

It left them with simply too much to do. It was pedestrian stuff from India’s new ball bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya. There was no movement in the air and nothing off the pitch. They were wayward as well.

It was a complete performance by England. They won the battle