Rohit just too hot for England

ENGLAND came up short in their Bristol decider as Rohit Sharma’s world record-equalling third Twenty20 international century eased India to a series-sealing seven-wicket victory.

Jason Roy (67) threatened to put England’s stamp on this sun-drenched Vitality IT20 occasion as a vivid green pitch belied its bizarre appearance to serve up another run-fest.

But the hosts failed to capitalise on the start provided by Roy and Jos Buttler’s opening stand of 94, as Hardik Pandya took a careerbest four wickets for 38 runs and then Rohit (100 not out) and Virat Kohli did the rest to pass a target of 198-9.

The tourists therefore wrapped up the first series of their long tour with eight balls to spare as Rohit hit 11 fours and five sixes to become only the second batsman, following New Zealand’s Colin Munro, to bag a third hundred in this format.

England captain Eoin Morgan said his side paid for being unable to build on a solid start.

“It was tremendous with the bat,” Morgan said.

“Jason Roy and Jos Buttler proved what a dominant force they are up top and created a great platform for us to capitalise on and we didn’t do it justice.

“We got ourselves on to probably a par score, probably fell between 20 or 30 short. Just our execution of shots, trying to find a boundary when it wasn’t quite there at the end.

“It’s the execution. Trying to find your area and picking the right ball to hit is something we’ll have to work on moving forward.

“Normally it’s one of the best parts of our game. India bowled well, but on a small ground and a flat wicket we were expecting to score more than that.”