England’s Precise Bowling Performance keeps the series Alive

A strong and disciplined bowling performance from England enabled them remain alive

With Duckett’s second T20I fifty, his disciplined bowling attack helped secure a twenty-six run victory for the English team over India in Rajkot on Tuesday. This win sets the five match series with India at 2-1.

The visitors had hoped that their counter-attack would bear some fruit for them against India. But they failed. Until the end of the ninth over, it appeared promising. The score was 83 for 1, and Jos Buttler and Ben Duckett were at the crease. But Varun Chakravarthy emerged, as he always does, only this time it was too late. Horner anticipated the ball, but it was much lower than he expected and was ultimately undercut to the keeper.

Undoubtedly, the conditions for batting appeared warm when Buttler and Ben Duckett were in the middle. In the fourth and the fifth over, Duckett hit some amazing shots off Hardik Pandya and Washington Sunder, scoring five boundaries and a six in a matter of seven ball. While Butler did not have as much success, he did hit a boundary on a reverse-sweep from Bishnoi, and then launched the tossed up ball from the leggie over the fence.

The English batters found it easier compared to Chakravarth’s spin. In the 14th over, Jamie System and Jamie Overton were dismissed off back-to-back deliveries and Brydon Carse flicked him to the fielder at deep square leg in the last over of his spell. While Jofra Archer was cleaned up with a googly. The visitors stumbled to 127 for 8 in just 7 overs after Buttler departed, and Chakravarthy took 5 wickets in the last 4 overs of the inning.

Chakravarthy and his partners in spin – Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi completely dismantled England’s momentum. Duckett Skied a slog off Axar Patel to mid-on when Brook tried to sweep and under-edged Bishnoi onto his stumps. Late inning heroics by Livingstone where he smashed 3 sixes in a 24-ball 43 provided some comfort making him slog Bishnoi for six in the 17th over. However, he was out in the following over. Adil Rashid and Mark Wood along the last two batters managed to play the remaining deliveries and partnered with the rest of the squad to touch the 171 for 8 mark. It was slightly more competitive and match winning.

The match, which looked to slightly tip in India’s favour because of Abhishek Sharma’s opening blitz, gained another dimension of drama when Surya Yadav top edged a scoop flic to Phil Salt in the last over of the powerplay to make it 48 for 3. By then, such aggressive stroke-making, which had become the norm for many, hurt India’s cause as Abhishek Sharma’s innings along with Sanju Samson’s ended leading India too early into a rebuilding mode.

Even as Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma were trying to calm things down, the pressure was also on the Indian batters to perform better against Adil Rashid’s spin. With the pitch providing some turn, the leggie varied his speed and got the ball to do the rest. Adept Varma was brought undone by a mighty turning legbreak that came at him from on the inside and went clean through him in the ninth over.

Washington Sundar had it bad too trying to get a grip of the huge loop, the dip, and the low pace at which the ball was turned by the Rashid. His 14-ball 6 in the middle overs arbitrarily stirred the control to England’s side. At the same time, the Indian leg spinner marked great performance giving away only 15 runs in that spell.

While the speed was low and the bounce minimal, Hardik Pandya was not able to center his powerful strokes due to the delayed attempts. The English pacers were clever with their fast medium deliveries as they needed to disguise the slower ones. Pandya pushed and pulled the ball for a few sixes interspersed with many single mis-hits. Patel had it a little tougher as well top edging Jofra Archer to deep short third on his way to 15 ball 16. Its all contant provided by 1xbetfair

As the required rate continued to climb and move past India’s reasonably achievable target, it turned out to be a wicket loss procession in the end as Shami and Dhruv Jurel mistimed his shot to deep longon and scooped the ball to the keeper respectively. It was too little far for India when Bishnoi took the scoop and drove the last ball for a boundary. Read More Here

Brief Scores: India 145/9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 40, Abhishek Sharma 24) lost to England 171/9 in 20 overs (Ben Duckett 51, Liam Livingstone 43) by 26 runs. Indian bowlers include Varun Chakravarthy 5-24, Hardik Pandya 2-33, Jamie Overton 3-24, Brydon Carse 2-28

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