Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina smashed aggressive half centuries to propel India to 202 for 6 in the series-deciding third and final T20 International cricket match against England here today.
Raina struck 63 off 45 balls, hitting two fours and five sixes while Dhoni scored 56 of 36 balls with the help of five boundaries and two sixes as the duo entertained the full-house crowd at Chinnaswamy Stadium with their batting pyrotechnics.
Lokesh Rahul (22), Yuvraj Singh (27) and Hardik Pandya (11) were other main contributors. Captain Virat Kohli was out for 2 while Rishabh Pant was remained unbeaten on 6.
For England, Tymal Mills, Chris Jordon, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes scalped one wicket each.
Visiting team captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and chose to bowl first as England looked to bounce back from their disappointing finish in Nagpur.
For India, Rishabh Pant, the highly-rated 19-year-old batsman, made his debut, coming into the team in place of Manish Pandey.
India began their innings poorly as they lost the prize wicket of Kohli (2) in the second over of the match as he raced down to steal a single but bowler Jordan's throw hit the stumps with the Indian skipper short of his crease.
The home side lost their second wicket at 65 runs when Stokes sent the bails flashing after the ball beat Rahul's inside edge. The batsman tried to slog a length ball on middle stump and paid the prize.
Before his dismissal, Rahul had put on 61 runs with Raina for the second wicket and that gave the platform for Dhoni's onslaught coming at number four.
Raina was a treat to watch as he took on the fight against the English bowlers, who have been miserly in giving away runs in the last two matches. Most of the runs came off sixes than boundaries.
In the last ball of the third over, Raina opened up with an inside-out shot over cover point boundary for a maximum off the bowling of Mills. After three overs, Raina again came into the act and put away two sixes of Jordan.
Raina was, however, dropped by Adil Rashid off his own bowling as he could not hold on to the chest-high ball after the batsman went for a full-blooded drive down the ground, when he was batting on 47.
Raina reached to his half century in the same over after he cleared Rashid for midwicket boundary with ease. Raina then launched high and straight over Ali's head for another six before he was out in the 14th over when he looked to crash Plunkett over extra cover but ended up slicing the ball to the man at extra cover who pouched it.
Dhoni was not far behind and joined the party with Raina by scoring 56 off 36 balls with five fours and two sixes.
After putting up 55 runs partnership with Raina for the third wicket, Dhoni stitched another 57 runs with Yuvraj who scored 27 runs of 10 balls.
Dhoni belted a six off Plunkett over long-on as his best of the day before top-edging straight to the man at short fine leg in the final over off the bowling of Jordan.
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