After India’s thrilling 7-run victory over England in the third ODI, pacer Shardul Thakur spoke about the visitors’ deep batting line-up and how crucial it is to take wickets at regular intervals.
In the series decider at Pune on Sunday (March 28), England were reeling at 200/7 while chasing 330 but all-rounder Sam Curran revived the tourists’ hopes with a valiant knock of 83-ball 95*.
For India, T Natarajan defended 14 runs in the final over and restricted England to 322/9 while Shardul Thakur (4-67) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-42) took seven wickets between them.
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"When I came on to bowl, England had lost three wickets, Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler were batting and they were looking in good form and they were striking the ball well. My plan was to take wickets, their batting lineup is quite deep. With England's batting lineup, it is important to take wickets at regular intervals. It is difficult coming into bowl as one change or the second change," Shardul told Bhuvneshwar Kumar in a video posted on the official website of BCCI.
"When the ball gets old, it does not swing much and you have to extract something from the pitch by using cutters or bouncers. You have to try different balls, if you think about the strength of England's batting, they will hit you but if you think that a dot ball or wicket ball can be bowled, then it will help you and this is the right mindset," he added.
"Virat Kohli took a stunning catch, at that time, we desperately needed a wicket. I am happy that Rashid's wicket came of my bowling but Virat took a blinder of a catch," Thakur told Bhuvneshwar.
Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, and Adil Rashid were the victims of Shardul in the third ODI while Bhuvneshwar removed Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, and Moeen Ali.
Reflecting on his performance, Bhuvneshwar told Shardul: "I was trying to swing the ball, in the first over, Jason Roy scored boundaries of good balls, luckily I was able to dismiss Roy in the very first over and the momentum changed after that. Experience always helps, I have learnt that you change the field setup to disturb the batter, these small things I have learnt. To be honest, it was a very challenging series, we knew England has a strong batting lineup. It was a tough series for the bowlers, but in the end, it was a perfect series for us."
Earlier, India’s innings folded in 48.2 overs but the hosts ended up posting 329 on the board. Rishabh Pant (78 off 62 balls), Shikhar Dhawan (67 off 56 balls) and Hardik Pandya (64 off 44 balls) batted fearlessly and registered dazzling half-centuries.
(With ANI inputs)
