England stand-in skipper Jos Buttler said he saw shades of the 'great finisher' Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Sam Curran's valiant 95 not out that went in vain as India sealed the ODI series 2-1 by winning the third and final match in Pune on Sunday. Sam Curran, who walked in at number 8 amid a collapsing English innings, led a valiant fight back as he dragged his side seven runs short to victory.
"I'm sure Sam would want to talk to MS about tonight's innings..I'm sure there were shades of the way that he (MS Dhoni) would have liked to take the game down if he was in that situation. He's a great person for Sam to have a conversation with when he meets up MS (in the IPL)," Buttler said at the virtual post-match news conference.
England pace bowling all-rounder, Sam Curran who almost won the match and series for England with his unbeaten 95 (off 83 balls) said he was disappointed with the finish as his side lost the third and final ODI by just seven runs.
"We didn't win the game, but happy with the way I played. I haven't done something like that for a while especially for England. Disappointed with the finish. I had a few messages from the dug-out as well. [They said] try to bat deep and try to take most of the strike," said the left-hander after the match.
England were struggling at 168 for six when Curran walked in and soon his side found itself at 200 for seven. But the left-arm pace bowler, who was the difference between India and England in the Test series at home in 2018, looked to become the difference once again.
He took 18 runs off Shardul Thakur's last over to bring England back, spotting the slower deliveries of his Chennai Super Kings teammate Shardul Thakur who had picked four wickets and deceived the earlier English batsmen. Needing 14 off the last over, Curran found left-arm pacer T Natarajan hard to score boundaries of.
"Natarajan bowled really well in the end. He had six deliveries there and showed why he's a good bowler," added Curran. Sam will now join the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team camp underway in Mumbai as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to begin on April 9.