England ended their international season on a winning note when they beat India by three runs in a dramatic Twenty20 game against India at Edgbaston.
Eoin Morgan, the captain, returned to form with seven sixes in his 71 from 31 balls as England hit 81 from the last five overs to set India a roughly-par target of 181 on a decent pitch.
Fine bowling towards the end by Harry Gurney, James Tredwell and Steven Finn meant that the touring side needed 17 from the last over, and the equation came down to 11 from five balls when Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit Chris Woakes over square leg.
With dashing confidence, Dhoni twice rejected clear singles to stay on strike and he needed to hit the last ball for five to win the game, or four to take it into a super over. However, Woakes bowled roughly where he wanted and the India captain could only squirt it away for a single.
India appeared to have the chase under control when Virat Kohli, whose 66 from 41 balls was his first half-century of the tour, added 80 for the second wicket with Shikhar Dhawan. Suresh Raina then added further support before a good short ball by Finn appeared to surprise Kohli, who gave an easy catch into the leg side.
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Even so, a target of 46 from five overs stood well in range of players familiar with the Indian Premier League. A full inswinger undid Raina, though, and panic set in as an alert Ravi Bopara helped to run out Ravindra Jadeja, to set up a thrilling climax for a 24,000 capacity crowd comprising largely of British Asians.
Earlier, Jason Roy showed no fear in reverse-sweeping the second ball of his international career to the boundary but was unable to build on that confident start and holed out to cover, a mode of dismissal that soon accounted too for Moeen Ali.
Alex Hales struck three sixes in racing to 40 from 25 balls before a brilliant catch by Ajinkya Rahane, his third of four in the innings, ended a promising innings in the tenth over. Joe Root was never able to maintain that strike rate, but Morgan certainly could in his most persuasive contribution of the summer.
Off the mark with a six from Ravichandran Ashwin, he kept things ticking against spin before capitalizing in the closing overs when Dhoni returned to the pace of Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma to costly effect.
By that stage, Morgan had already pulled two long-hops from Karn Sharma, a wrist-spin bowler on debut, over the ropes and as the seamers lost control of length attempting to bowl yorkers, Morgan was quick to strike balls into the leg side and England’s third fifty came from only 21 balls.
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When the Middlesex player drilled a full toss from Shami to long off, the first ball of the last over, Bopara took up the challenge with two fours and a six to briefly silence the strong India contingent in the stands.