Gill leads the way with a sublime century as India routs England in the third ODI, sweeps series

India's masterful 142-run thrashing of England in the final ODI showcases the importance of perception in cricket.

Perception matters. It’s not just about winning matches but also how you win them. On Wednesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, India showed, yet again, how this was done with a masterful 142-run thrashing of England in the third and final ODI.

If a settled batting unit led by the sublime Shubman Gill (112, 102b, 14x4, 3x6) put on a mammoth 356, a rejigged bowling line-up – Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh coming in for Varun Chakaravarthy (sore calf), Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami (both rested) – dismissed England for a paltry 214 to complete a 3-0 whitewash ahead of the Champions Trophy.

For a third straight time this series, England was off to a racy start with Ben Duckett (34, 22b, 8x4) and Phil Salt (23, 21b, 4x4) scoring at 10 runs an over in the first six. But Arshdeep excised both batters in successive overs with excellent slower deliveries.

Tom Banton (38, 41b, 4x4, 2x6) and Joe Root (24, 29b, 2x4) resisted, with the former playing a couple of audacious reverse sweeps. But Kuldeep had Banton edge behind a flighted wrong’un before Axar Patel forced Root to chop one on. When frontline pacer Harshit Rana returned to send back Jos Buttler and Harry Brook, it was all over.

After being put into bat, India rode on Gill’s seventh ODI ton. It appeared like he knew the Modi Stadium like the back of his hand, for he has now scored hundreds in all three formats here. And this reflected in the way the 25-year-old explored every area of the ground, driving, flicking, jabbing and even late-cutting his way through.

Initially, Gill routinely stepped out to negate the appreciable seam movement. And once he settled, he blossomed. Speedster Gus Atkinson was straight-driven and lofted over his head while spinners Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid were whipped, steered and milked all over the ground. Such was Gill’s onslaught that 77 of the 112 runs he scored came off the trio.

If a sweetly driven boundary to the extra-cover fence off Rashid brought Gill his fifty, the hundred was had with a majestic flick to the mid-wicket fence off Mark Wood. Virat Kohli (52, 55b, 7x4, 1x6) and Shreyas Iyer (78, 64b, 8x4, 2x6) supported their vice-captain well, combining for 116 second-wicket runs and 104 for the third respectively.