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

 

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.