England fight back in crucial T20 match vs India at Rajkot.
Intro
India came into game three of this five match series as firm favourites having won the first two games relatively comfortably. This is a must win game for England to keep the series alive.
England Innings
India struck first blood by winning the toss and electing to field first. Rajkot is historically a batters paradise, England, therefore had 200 in their sights. It was the same old sorry start from England as Phil Salt was out tamely to Hardik Pandya in the second over of the innings for just 5 off 7 balls.
The in-form skipper Jos Buttler strode to the crease, uncharacteristically playing second fiddle to the blistering pocket rocket Ben Duckett. Duckett, who has had a quiet series so far, struck a mouth watering 51 off 28 balls. Buttler and Duckett put on 76 for the second wicket, the partnership was broken after a successful review showed Buttler to have gloved a reverse sweep through to the wicketkeeper Sanju Samson off the bowling of the imperious Varun Chakravarthy. Buttler looked guilty as sin as he made way for Yorkshire’s Harry Brook.
Duckett was next to go four runs later in what became India’s crucial wicket. The promising advantage for the batting side suddenly dwindled as England’s middle order failed to ignite. Brooks' struggles against spin continued as he chopped on to a delivery far too full for the sweep shot, Ravi Bishnoi doing the damage on that occasion. Jamie Smith was 6 and out, playing a brainless slog and holing out off the bowling of the wizard that is Chakravarthy after being dropped first ball. Jamie Overton came in next, and was out first ball to Chakravarthy with another pre meditated sweep shot leading to him getting bowled around his legs. Brydon Carse added just 3 runs, whilst Jofra Archer failed to trouble the scorers. England had slipped from 87-3 to 127-8 in the space of 6 overs. This was an innings that the middle order would do good to forget quickly, England's uber aggressive approach crossed into the area of sheer recklessness leaving Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone with plenty of work to do. Livingstone shielded the tail well, bludgeoning his way to a breezy 43, leaving Mark Wood and Adil Rashid to add 24 for the last wicket, doing well to bat out the last three overs.
The highlight for the Indian bowlers was a masterful 5-24 from Chakravarthy who now has 10 wickets for the series, the first bowler to achieve this feat in a bilateral series between these two sides. What makes this even more staggering is that there are still two games to go. The other positive was Mohammed Shami getting through his overs unscathed on his return from injury, even if his efforts were not rewarded with wickets on this occasion.
India Innings
At the halfway stage, the feeling around the ground was that England were 30 runs short of a par total and would have to bowl well to keep the series alive. This would be some challenge against an Indian side who have won 26 of the last 28 IT20 matches.
Jofra Archer bowled the first over and set the tone with just 3 conceded off the first over. The irresistible Abishek Sharma looked comfortable during Mark Wood’s first over, depositing a back of a length 150 kph thunderbolt over mid-on for four, gee, this young man has some talent. Sanju Samson was the first Indian dismissed as his vulnerability against the short ball came back to bite him once again in this series. He miscued an easy catch to Adil Rashid at mid-on, this is a great sign for England as Rashid dropped a crucial catch in game 2. Sharma followed suit shortly after, with Jofra Archer taking a scintillating catch to dismiss him for 24 off the bowling of the ever impressive Brydon Carse. The skipper Suryakumar Yadav then fell to the bowling of Mark Wood, leaving India in serious trouble, 51-3 after the powerplay.
In truth, India were always behind the 8-ball after this point mainly down to incredibly disciplined bowling from England. Adil Rashid, aging like a fine wine, returned figures of 1-15, taking the main wicket of Tilak Varma who was out for 18 runs. After Jamie Overton dismissed Washington Sundar for a stodgy 6 from 15 balls, Harsha Boghle announced that ‘this innings is formally in recession’.
Hardik Pandya, channeling his inner MS Dhoni, took the game deep but ultimately had far too much to do when he was finally out for 40 off the bowling of Jamie Overton. The rest of the innings was a mere formality with India finishing 26 runs short of England’s target.
This is the first win for England under the guidance of Brendan McCullum, and by jove they needed it. The series is well and truly alive. Next stop is Pune, let’s hope England can keep up the momentum and square the series!
By Bevan Fawcett